English

On the Ambiguity in Relativistic Tidal Deformability

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2018-03-28 v3 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

The LIGO collaboration recently reported the first gravitational-wave constraints on the tidal deformability of neutron stars. I discuss an inherent ambiguity in the notion of relativistic tidal deformability that, while too small to affect the present measurement, may become important in the future. I propose a new way to understand the ambiguity and discuss future prospects for reliably linking observed gravitational waveforms to compact object microphysics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.11096,
  title  = {On the Ambiguity in Relativistic Tidal Deformability},
  author = {Samuel E. Gralla},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.11096},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

discussion expanded; matches published version

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:30:09.136Z