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Gravitational wave excitation of the 160-min solar oscillation?

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Abstract

Recent γ-ray observations1 of the, apparently, nearby source Geminga suggest the possibility that it is a close binary pair of compact stellar objects orbiting with a period of 160 or perhaps 320 min (Delache1 speculates that a 160-min periodicity in the γ-ray flux might still be a signature of a 320-min orbital period). The coincidence of this period with the observed 160-min periodicity in the full disk solar velocity data has led G. Isaak (personal communication) and others to speculate that the gravitational waves emitted by the binary pair are exciting a normal mode of the Sun. Solar velocity data2–4 confirm the existence of an approximately 50 cm s−1 oscillation in integrated Doppler shift observations that has been phase coherent for ∼9 yr. We report here a calculation of the solar cross-section for gravitational wave excitation and discuss why such a mechanism is an extremely unlikely explanation of the observed solar oscillation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, Joseph Henry Laboratories, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08544, USA

    J. R. Kuhn & S. P. Boughn

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  1. J. R. Kuhn
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  2. S. P. Boughn
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Kuhn, J., Boughn, S. Gravitational wave excitation of the 160-min solar oscillation?. Nature 308, 164–165 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/308164a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/308164a0

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