Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-astrophysics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/3/c/solution

Keep both component masses constant during a circular, gravitational-radiation-driven inspiral. Since , differentiation gives . Combining this with the supplied angular-momentum loss yields
The expression printed in the source is negative during inspiral. A positive characteristic shrinking timescale is
The actual remaining coalescence time follows by integrating :
This constant factor does not change the requested separation scaling.
For an old, approximately coeval population, let over the relevant separation interval, and write the positive delay as . Conservation of event counts under this change of variable gives
Therefore
The scaling applies between the minimum and maximum delays of the assumed separation distribution. It is a rate per delay interval, not the number per logarithmic delay interval.

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