Exploring the Phase Diagram of V-QCD with Neutron Star Merger Simulations

TL;DR

This paper uses a holographic V-QCD model within general relativistic hydrodynamic simulations to explore the phase diagram of dense QCD matter and predict gravitational wave signatures from neutron star mergers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the V-QCD holographic model in fully relativistic simulations of neutron star mergers to study quark matter formation.

Findings

Identification of conditions for quark matter formation during mergers

Predicted gravitational wave signatures associated with phase transitions

Insights into the QCD phase diagram at high densities

Abstract

Determining the phase structure of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and its Equation of State (EOS) at densities and temperatures realized inside neutron stars and their mergers is a long-standing open problem. The holographic V-QCD framework provides a model for the EOS of dense and hot QCD, which describes the deconfinement phase transition between a dense baryonic and a quark matter phase. We use this model in fully general relativistic hydrodynamic (GRHD) simulations to study the formation of quark matter and the emitted gravitational wave signal of binary systems that are similar to the first ever observed neutron star merger event GW170817.