Gravitation wave emission from radio pulsars revisited

We report a new pulsar population synthesis based on Monte Carlo techniques , aiming to estimate the contribution of galactic radio pulsars to the cont inuous gravitational wave emission. Assuming that the rotation periods of p ulsars at birth hale a Gaussian distribution, we find that the average init ial period is 290 ms. The number of objects with periods equal to or less t han 0.4 s, and therefore capable of being detected by an interferometric gr avitational antenna like VIRGO, is of the order of 5100-7800. With integrat ion times lasting between 2 and 3 yr. our simulations suggest that about tw o detections should be possible, if the mean equatorial ellipticity of the pulsars is epsilon = 10(-6). A mean ellipticity an order of magnitude highe r increases the expected number of detections to 12-18, whereas for epsilon < 10(-6). no detections are expected.