Influence of the r‐mode instability on hypercritically accreting neutron stars

We have investigated the influence of the r‐mode instability on hypercritically accreting neutron stars in close binary systems during their common envelope phases, based on the scenario proposed by Brown et al. On the one hand, neutron stars are heated by the accreted matter at the stellar surface, but on the other hand they are also cooled down by the neutrino radiation. At the same time, the accreted matter transports its angular momentum and mass to the star. We have studied the evolution of the stellar mass, temperature and rotational frequency. The gravitational‐wave‐driven instability of the r‐mode oscillation strongly suppresses spinning up of the star, the final rotational frequency of which is well below the mass‐shedding limit, in fact typically as low as 10 per cent of that of the mass‐shedding state. On a very short time‐scale the rotational frequency tends to approach a certain constant value and saturates there, as long as the amount of accreted mass does not exceed a certain limit to collapse to a black hole. This implies that a similar mechanism of gravitational radiation to that in the so‐called ‘Wagoner star’ may work in this process. The star is spun up by accretion until the angular momentum loss by gravitational radiation balances the accretion torque. The time‐integrated dimensionless strain of the radiated gravitational wave may be large enough to be detectable by gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO II.