2013/07/31 by Walter Del Pozzo, W. Del Pozzo, Tjonnie G. F. Li +5 · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Binary number #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Computational physics #Detector #Einstein Telescope #Equation of state #Gravitational wave #Gravitational-wave astronomy #LIGO #Neutron star #Optics #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Seismic Waves and Analysis #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.111.071101
5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. Lett
arxiv created 2013/07/31 · openalex publication_date 2013/08/15 · arxiv updated 2015/06/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Fisher matrix and related studies have suggested that, with second-generation gravitational-wave detectors, it may be possible to infer the equation of state of neutron stars using tidal effects in a binary inspiral. Here, we present the first fully Bayesian investigation of this problem. We simulate a realistic data analysis setting by performing a series of numerical experiments of binary neutron-star signals hidden in detector noise, assuming the projected final design sensitivity of the Advanced LIGO-Virgo network. With an astrophysical distribution of events (in particular, uniform in comoving volume), we find that only a few tens of detections will be required to arrive at strong constraints, even for some of the softest equations of state in the literature. Thus, direct gravitational-wave detection will provide a unique probe of neutron-star structure.