Tidal deformability of neutron stars with realistic equations of state and their gravitational wave signatures in binary inspiral
The early part of the gravitational wave signal of binary neutron-star inspirals can potentially yield robust information on the nuclear equation of state. The influence of a star’s internal structure on the waveform is characterized by a single parameter: the tidal deformability [lamda], which meas...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Physical Society
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/64461 |
| Summary: | The early part of the gravitational wave signal of binary neutron-star inspirals can potentially yield robust information on the nuclear equation of state. The influence of a star’s internal structure on the waveform is characterized by a single parameter: the tidal deformability [lamda], which measures the star’s quadrupole deformation in response to the companion’s perturbing tidal field. We calculate [lamda] for a wide range of equations of state and find that the value of λ spans an order of magnitude for the range of equation of state models considered. An analysis of the feasibility of discriminating between neutron-star equations of state with gravitational wave observations of the early part of the inspiral reveals that the measurement error in [lamda] increases steeply with the total mass of the binary. Comparing the errors with the expected range of [lamda], we find that Advanced LIGO observations of binaries at a distance of 100 Mpc will probe only unusually stiff equations of state, while the proposed Einstein Telescope is likely to see a clean tidal signature. |
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