Gravitational Waves from merging binaries

Abstract

We discuss gravitational waves from merging binaries using a Newtonian approach with some inputs from the PostNewtonian formalism. We show that it is possible to understand the key features of the signal using fundamental physics and also demonstrate that an approximate calculation gives us the correct order of magnitude estimate of the parameters describing the merging binary system. We build on this analysis to understand the range for different types of sources for given detector sensitivity. We also consider known binary pulsar systems and discuss the expected gravitational wave signal from these.