Neutron star tidal deformability and equation of state constraints

TL;DR

This paper explores how neutron star tidal deformability, measurable via gravitational waves from neutron star mergers like GW170817, constrains the stars' internal equation of state and composition.

Contribution

It highlights the significance of tidal deformability measurements in understanding neutron star interiors and discusses their implications for the equation of state of dense matter.

Findings

Tidal deformability can be extracted from gravitational wave signals.

GW170817 provides key data for constraining neutron star properties.

Tidal deformability limits inform models of dense matter in neutron stars.

Abstract

Despite their long history and astrophysical importance, some of the key properties of neutron stars are still uncertain. The extreme conditions encountered in their interiors, involving matter of uncertain composition at extreme density and isospin asymmetry, uniquely determine the stars' macroscopic properties within General Relativity. Astrophysical constraints on those macroscopic properties, such as neutron star masses and radii, have long been used to understand the microscopic properties of the matter that forms them. In this article we discuss another astrophysically observable macroscopic property of neutron stars that can be used to study their interiors: their tidal deformation. Neutron stars, much like any other extended object with structure, are tidally deformed when under the influence of an external tidal field. In the context of coalescences of neutron stars observed through their gravitational wave emission, this deformation, quantified through a parameter termed the \emph{tidal deformability}, can be measured. We discuss the role of the tidal deformability in observations of coalescing neutron stars with gravitational waves and how it can be used to probe the internal structure of Nature's most compact matter objects. Perhaps inevitably, a large portion of the discussion will be dictated by GW170817, the most informative confirmed detection of a binary neutron star coalescence with gravitational waves as of the time of writing.