Gravitational waves emitted by extrasolar planetary systems

The recently discovered Extrasolar Planetary Systems (EPS's) are potentially interesting sources of gravitational waves, since they are very close to Earth (at distances similar to 10 pc), and their orbital features and positions in the sky are quite well known. As a first estimate, we compute the orbital emission of these systems using the quadrupole formula. Then we show that, in principle, the orbiting planet could resonantly excite the quasi-normal modes of the central star. We use the general-relativistic theory of stellar pulsations to estimate the effects of such a resonance on the gravitational-wave emission of the system. We also consider radiation-reaction effects on the orbital evolution, and give upper limits on the timescales required for a planet to get off-resonance.