The inverse problem for pulsating neutron stars: A ``fingerprint analysis'' for the supranuclear equation of state

TL;DR

This paper explores how gravitational wave observations of pulsating neutron stars can reveal their internal physics, specifically the supranuclear equation of state, by analyzing mode frequencies and damping rates.

Contribution

It introduces a method to infer the neutron star's internal equation of state from gravitational wave mode frequencies and proposes a detection strategy for these signals.

Findings

Detectable fluid and gravitational-wave modes from galactic neutron stars.

Estimated accuracy of frequency and damping rate inference from noisy data.

Proposed a multi-detector approach for source localization.

Abstract

We study the problem of detecting, and infering astrophysical information from, gravitational waves from a pulsating neutron star. We show that the fluid f and p-modes, as well as the gravitational-wave w-modes may be detectable from sources in our own galaxy, and investigate how accurately the frequencies and damping rates of these modes can be infered from a noisy gravitational-wave data stream. Based on the conclusions of this discussion we propose a strategy for revealing the supranuclear equation of state using the neutron star fingerprints: the observed frequencies of an f and a p-mode. We also discuss how well the source can be located in the sky using observations with several detectors.