Investigating the impact of quasi-universal relations on neutron star constraints in third-generation detectors

TL;DR

This paper assesses how inaccuracies in quasi-universal relations affect neutron star property measurements in third-generation gravitational-wave detectors, emphasizing the importance of careful application to avoid biases in dense matter equation of state constraints.

Contribution

It systematically evaluates the biases introduced by various quasi-universal relations in future gravitational-wave observations of neutron stars.

Findings

Biases are significant only for rapidly rotating systems in the Love-Q relation.

Moderate biases affect next-to-leading-order tidal parameters in the binary Love relation.

Fundamental mode frequency relations introduce negligible biases, but waveform effects can be larger.

Abstract

Gravitational-wave observations of binary neutron star systems can shed light on the currently unknown dense matter equation of state. The equation of state determines a large number of neutron star properties, such as tidal deformability, radius, and quadrupole moment, several of which directly affect the emitted gravitational-wave signals. To reduce the dimensionality when computing gravitational-waves and when interpreting observational data, quasi-universal relations are commonly employed to connect different neutron star properties. However, quasi-universal relations are not exact and their use may introduce uncertainty and bias. We explore the potential biases arising from different quasi-universal relations in the third generation era: (i) the Love-Q relation connecting the spin-induced quadrupole moment and the tidal deformability, (ii) the relation between the fundamental mode frequency and the tidal deformability, and (iii) the binary Love relation. We find that for the quadrupole relation biases are only present for rapidly rotating systems, for the binary-Love relation induces moderate biases only in the next-to-leading-order tidal parameters, which can however propagate into the inferred equation of state at low masses. Regarding fundamental mode frequencies, we find that the employed relation introduces only negligible biases, while waveform systematic effects can become comparatively large. Our results highlight that while quasi-universal relations remain a useful tool within gravitational-wave analyses, careful treatment is needed to avoid biases in equation of state measurements with next-generation detectors.