Tidal reconstruction of neutron star mergers from their late inspiral

TL;DR

This paper proposes a rapid and efficient method to measure the tidal deformability in neutron star mergers from gravitational wave signals during late inspiral, aiding electromagnetic follow-up efforts.

Contribution

It introduces a computationally efficient strategy to extract tidal information from gravitational wave data shortly before merger, improving measurement speed and accuracy.

Findings

Applied method to GW170817 data successfully.

Demonstrated approach's suitability for future observatories.

Enhanced ability to prioritize electromagnetic follow-up.

Abstract

We investigate the measurement correlation between the effective spin and the effective tidal deformability in gravitational wave signals from binary neutron star mergers. To efficiently measure the effective tidal deformability parameter, we exploit the fact that the tidal effects in a binary system are prominent when the components are closer during the late-inspiral. Thus, we indicate to a computationally efficient strategy of extracting the tidal information compressed within seconds before the merger. We report our observations for \texttt{GW170817} and explore the suitability of our approach in the upcoming observation scenarios of the current and the future ground-based observatories. Fast and accurate measurements of the tidal deformability parameters can be used to inform astronomers in prioritizing the electromagnetic follow-up efforts for such sources.