Gravitational waves from low-mass X-ray binaries: A status report

We summarize the observations of the spin periods of rapidly accreting neutron stars. If gravitational radiation is responsible for balancing the accretion torque at the observed spin frequencies of ~300 Hz, then the brightest of these systems make excellent gravitational wave sources for LIGO-II and beyond. We review the recent theoretical progress on two mechanisms for gravitational wave emission: mass quadrupole radiation from deformed neutron star crusts and current quadrupole radiation from r-mode pulsations in neutron star cores. .