Past exam of the astrophysics course of the University of Oxford / 2015 / 1 / a / ii / Solution

The changing mass quadrupole moment produces an inspiral gravitational wave signal whose frequency and amplitude increase toward merger. The chirp mass controls the leading frequency evolution, while higher-order phasing and the merger carry information about binary mass ratio and spins. Neutron stars also introduce tidal effects. These signals motivate a search with an interferometer such as LIGO; the supplied ranges quantify the paper's proposed detection prospects, without assuming any particular later observing-run performance.