We investigate the direct contribution of the magnetic field to the gravitational wave (GW) generation. To do so, we study the post-Newtonian (PN) energy–momentum tensor of the magnetized fluid and the PN expansion of the gravitational potential in the wave zone. We show that the magnetic field appears even in the first PN order of the multipole moment tensor. Then, we find an explicit relativistic correction containing the magnetic field contribution to the well-known quadrupole formula. As an application of this derivation, we find that the B-field part of the GWs released in the early stages of a millisecond magnetar’s life can be as much as one-hundredth of the signals due to the deformed rotating neutron stars. We show that although the event rate of this system is small, the signal would lie in the sensitivity range of the next generation of detectors.

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