Tidal Response of Compact Objects

TL;DR

This paper reviews the tidal responses of various compact objects, emphasizing their role in gravitational-wave signals and tests of gravity, with detailed discussions on Love numbers and their implications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, unified overview of tidal effects in black holes, neutron stars, and exotic objects, highlighting differences and observational signatures.

Findings

Black holes in vacuum GR have zero static Love numbers.

Neutron star Love numbers depend on the equation of state.

Exotic compact objects generally have nonzero Love numbers.

Abstract

The tidal response of compact objects provides a powerful probe of their internal structure and of the surrounding gravitational field. We provide a comprehensive and unified overview of tidal effects in black holes, neutron stars, and exotic compact objects, with emphasis on both static and dynamical responses to external fields, encoded in Love numbers and dissipation numbers. We discuss the vanishing of static bosonic Love numbers for black holes in vacuum General Relativity, their modifications in alternative theories, in non-standard models of compact objects, and in the presence of matter, as well as their role in testing deviations from Einstein's theory and environmental effects. A fundamental distinction between bosonic and fermionic perturbations is highlighted, as the latter yield nonzero static Love numbers even for black holes in General Relativity. For neutron stars, we overview the dependence of tidal Love numbers on the equation of state, the emergence of quasi-universal relations, and the impact of rotation, nonlinearities, and dynamical effects. Exotic compact objects typically feature nonvanishing static tidal Love numbers -- a striking observational signature that differentiates them from black holes. We further review how tidal effects influence the gravitational-wave signals from binary inspirals, and explore their implications for gravitational-wave astronomy. In particular, we stress their significance for current and future detectors as tools to test General Relativity, constrain the nuclear equation of state, and probe the fundamental nature of compact objects and their environments.