Identifying a first-order phase transition in neutron star mergers through gravitational waves
Abstract
We identify an observable imprint of a first-order hadron-quark phase transition at supranuclear densities on the gravitational-wave (GW) emission of neutron star mergers. Specifically, we show that the dominant postmerger GW frequency f_peak may exhibit a significant deviation from an empirical relation between f_peak and the tidal deformability if a strong first-order phase transition leads to the formation of a gravitationally stable extended quark matter core in the postmerger remnant. A comparison of the GW signatures from a large, representative sample of microphysical, purely hadronic equations of state indicates that this imprint is only observed in those systems which undergo a strong first-order phase transition. Such a shift of the dominant postmerger GW frequency can be revealed by future GW observations, which would provide evidence for the existence of a strong first-order phase transition in the interior of neutron stars.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1809.01116,
title = {Identifying a first-order phase transition in neutron star mergers through gravitational waves},
author = {Andreas Bauswein and Niels-Uwe F. Bastian and David B. Blaschke and Katerina Chatziioannou and James A. Clark and Tobias Fischer and Micaela Oertel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.01116},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
Main paper: 8 pages, 4 figures; Supplemental Material: 4 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett