Universal Relations with Dynamical Tides

TL;DR

This paper establishes new quasi-universal relations between static and dynamical tidal deformabilities of neutron stars, reducing uncertainties and improving gravitational-wave modeling accuracy.

Contribution

It identifies and tests new universal relations involving dynamical tidal parameters across multiple equations of state, enhancing gravitational-wave analysis.

Findings

The $ ext{Lambda}^{(0)}$--$ ext{Lambda}^{(2)}$ relation varies by less than 5% across EOS.

The $ ext{Lambda}^{(0)}$--$M ext{omega}_*$ relation varies by less than 2.8%.

One-mode approximation models dynamical tides more accurately than Taylor expansion.

Abstract

Observations of neutron stars and the precise measurement of their macroscopic properties have provided valuable insights into fundamental physics, both by constraining the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions and by enabling tests of general relativity in the strong-field regime. In this context, equation-of-state-insensitive or ``quasi-universal'' relations between key observables, such as the compactness, dimensionless static tidal deformability, and moment of inertia, play a crucial role in connecting different measurable observables while minimizing uncertainties due to the yet unknown equation-of-state. In this work, we identify new quasi-universal relations between the static, dimensionless tidal deformability ($\Lambda^{(0)}$) and its leading-order dynamical correction ($\Lambda^{(2)}$), as well as between $\Lambda^{(0)}$ and a combination of these parameters ($\sqrt{ \Lambda^{(0)}/\Lambda^{(2)}}\equiv M\omega_*$), obtained from the small-frequency expansion of the relativistic tidal response. We test these relations across a representative set of 59 equations of state, finding that the equation-of-state dependence does not exceed $\sim$5\% for the $\Lambda^{(0)}$--$\Lambda^{(2)}$ relation and $\sim2.8\%$ for the $\Lambda^{(0)}$--$M\omega_*$ relation. This indicates a high degree of universality and offers a simplified framework for incorporating dynamical tidal effects into gravitational-wave modeling. Furthermore, we compare the dynamical tidal response against different recent strategies (a Taylor expansion and a one-mode approximation) to model the dynamical tide. We find that both models are capable of capturing the frequency-dependent behavior of the dynamical tidal deformability, with the one-mode approximation agreeing better with the dynamical response than the Taylor expansion in most of the parameter space.