No Arabic abstract
Gravitational waves from the merger of two neutron stars cannot be easily distinguished from those produced by a comparable-mass mixed binary in which one of the companions is a black hole. Low-mass black holes are interesting because they could form in the aftermath of the coalescence of two neutron stars, from the collapse of massive stars, from matter overdensities in the primordial Universe, or as the outcome of the interaction between neutron stars and dark matter. Gravitational waves carry the imprint of the internal composition of neutron stars via the so-called tidal deformability parameter, which depends on the stellar equation of state and is equal to zero for black holes. We present a new data analysis strategy powered by Bayesian inference and machine learning to identify mixed binaries, hence low-mass black holes, using the distribution of the tidal deformability parameter inferred from gravitational-wave observations.
The detections of gravitational waves (GWs) from binary neutron star (BNS) systems and neutron star--black hole (NSBH) systems provide new insights into dense matter properties in extreme conditions and associated high-energy astrophysical processes. However, currently information about NS equation of state (EoS) is extracted with very limited precision. Meanwhile, the fruitful results from the serendipitous discovery of the $gamma$-ray burst alongside GW170817 show the necessity of early warning alerts. Accurate measurements of the matter effects and sky location could be achieved by joint GW detection from space and ground. In our work, based on two example cases, GW170817 and GW200105, we use the Fisher information matrix analysis to investigate the multiband synergy between the space-borne decihertz GW detectors and the ground-based Einstein Telescope (ET). We specially focus on the parameters pertaining to spin-induced quadrupole moment, tidal deformability, and sky localization. We demonstrate that, (i) only with the help of multiband observations can we constrain the quadrupole parameter; and (ii) with the inclusion of decihertz GW detectors, the errors of tidal deformability would be a few times smaller, indicating that many more EoSs could be excluded; (iii) with the inclusion of ET, the sky localization improves by about an order of magnitude. Furthermore, we have systematically compared the different limits from four planned decihertz detectors and adopting two widely used waveform models.
Coalescing neutron star (NS)-black hole (BH) binaries are promising sources of gravitational-waves (GWs) to be detected within the next few years by current GW observatories. If the NS is tidally disrupted outside the BH innermost stable circular orbit, an accretion torus may form, and this could eventually power a short gamma-ray burst (SGRB). The observation of an SGRB in coincidence with gravitational radiation from an NS-BH coalescence would confirm the association between the two phenomena and also give us new insights on NS physics. We present here a new method to measure NS radii and thus constrain the NS equation of state using joint SGRB and GW observations of NS-BH mergers. We show that in the event of a joint detection with realistic GW signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 10, the NS radius can be constrained to $lesssim,$20% accuracy at 90% confidence.
We report the observation of gravitational waves from two compact binary coalescences in LIGOs and Virgos third observing run with properties consistent with neutron star-black hole (NSBH) binaries. The two events are named GW200105_162426 and GW200115_042309, abbreviated as GW200105 and GW200115; the first was observed by LIGO Livingston and Virgo, and the second by all three LIGO-Virgo detectors. The source of GW200105 has component masses $8.9^{+1.2}_{-1.5},M_odot$ and $1.9^{+0.3}_{-0.2},M_odot$, whereas the source of GW200115 has component masses $5.7^{+1.8}_{-2.1},M_odot$ and $1.5^{+0.7}_{-0.3},M_odot$ (all measurements quoted at the 90% credible level). The probability that the secondarys mass is below the maximal mass of a neutron star is 89%-96% and 87%-98%, respectively, for GW200105 and GW200115, with the ranges arising from different astrophysical assumptions. The source luminosity distances are $280^{+110}_{-110}$ Mpc and $300^{+150}_{-100}$ Mpc, respectively. The magnitude of the primary spin of GW200105 is less than 0.23 at the 90% credible level, and its orientation is unconstrained. For GW200115, the primary spin has a negative spin projection onto the orbital angular momentum at 88% probability. We are unable to constrain spin or tidal deformation of the secondary component for either event. We infer a NSBH merger rate density of $45^{+75}_{-33},mathrm{Gpc}^{-3} mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ when assuming GW200105 and GW200115 are representative of the NSBH population, or $130^{+112}_{-69},mathrm{Gpc}^{-3} mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ under the assumption of a broader distribution of component masses.
Gravitational waves from binary neutron star (BNS) and black hole/neutron star (BHNS) inspirals are primary sources for detection by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The tidal forces acting on the neutron stars induce changes in the phase evolution of the gravitational waveform, and these changes can be used to constrain the nuclear equation of state. Current methods of generating BNS and BHNS waveforms rely on either computationally challenging full 3D hydrodynamical simulations or approximate analytic solutions. We introduce a new method for computing inspiral waveforms for BNS/BHNS systems by adding the post-Newtonian (PN) tidal effects to full numerical simulations of binary black holes (BBHs), effectively replacing the nontidal terms in the PN expansion with BBH results. Comparing a waveform generated with this method against a full hydrodynamical simulation of a BNS inspiral yields a phase difference of $<1$ radian over $sim 15$ orbits. The numerical phase accuracy required of BNS simulations to measure the accuracy of the method we present here is estimated as a function of the tidal deformability parameter ${lambda}$.
We present a proof-of-concept study, based on numerical-relativity simulations, of how gravitational waves (GWs) from neutron star merger remnants can probe the nature of matter at extreme densities. Phase transitions and extra degrees of freedom can emerge at densities beyond those reached during the inspiral, and typically result in a softening of the equation of state (EOS). We show that such physical effects change the qualitative dynamics of the remnant evolution, but they are not identifiable as a signature in the GW frequency, with the exception of possible black-hole formation effects. The EOS softening is, instead, encoded in the GW luminosity and phase and is in principle detectable up to distances of the order of several Mpcs with advanced detectors and up to hundreds of Mpcs with third generation detectors. Probing extreme-density matter will require going beyond the current paradigm and developing a more holistic strategy for modeling and analyzing postmerger GW signals.