Gravitational Radiation From Differentialy Rotating And Oscillating White Dwarfs

We examine the possible emission of gravitational waves from white dwarfs undergoing self‐similar oscillations driven by the energy released during relaxation of their differential rotation. Two distributions of the initial angular momentum are considered. It is assumed that 1% of the energy dissipated by a rotating white dwarf is converted into the energy of self‐similar oscillations and, therefore, into gravitational radiation. The relative amplitude of the gravitational radiation from an isolated white dwarf at a distance of 50pc is found to be less than 10⁻²⁷. The emission from the galactic population of white dwarfs may create a background which overlaps the random cosmological background of gravitational radiation for the improved decihertz detectors currently being proposed.