Impact of the tidal p-g instability on the gravitational wave signal from coalescing binary neutron stars

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that coalescing neutron stars are subject to a fluid instability involving the nonlinear coupling of the tide to $p$-modes and $g$-modes. Its influence on the inspiral dynamics and thus the gravitational wave signal is, however, uncertain because we do not know precisely how the instability saturates. Here we construct a simple, physically motivated model of the saturation that allows us to explore the instability's impact as a function of the model parameters. We find that for plausible assumptions about the saturation, current gravitational wave detectors might miss $>70\%$ of events if only point particle waveforms are used. Parameters such as the chirp mass, component masses, and luminosity distance might also be significantly biased. On the other hand, we find that relatively simple modifications to the point particle waveform can alleviate these problems and enhance the science that emerges from the detection of binary neutron stars.

15 pages, 12 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (12)

• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• Advanced LIGO
• Robust parameter estimation for compact binaries with ground-based gravitational-wave observations using the LALInference software library
• Comparison of post-Newtonian templates for compact binary inspiral signals in gravitational-wave detectors
• Use and Abuse of the Fisher Information Matrix in the Assessment of Gravitational-Wave Parameter-Estimation Prospects
• Tidal dissipation in stars and giant planets
• Model Waveform Accuracy Standards for Gravitational Wave Data Analysis
• Reconstructing the neutron-star equation of state with gravitational-wave detectors from a realistic population of inspiralling binary neutron stars
• LISA detections of massive black hole inspirals: parameter extraction errors due to inaccurate template waveforms
• Cosmology with the lights off: Standard sirens in the Einstein Telescope era
• Resonant Tidal Excitations of Inertial Modes in Coalescing Neutron Star Binaries
• Parameter estimation on compact binary coalescences with abruptly terminating gravitational waveforms

Cited by in corpus (19)

• GW190425: Observation of a Compact Binary Coalescence with Total Mass $\sim 3.4M_{\odot }$
• Neutron star tidal deformability and equation of state constraints
• Nonparametric Inference of Neutron Star Composition, Equation of State, and Maximum Mass with GW170817
• Interpreting Binary Neutron Star Mergers: Describing the Binary Neutron Star Dynamics, Modelling Gravitational Waveforms, and Analyzing Detections
• Spin effects on neutron star fundamental-mode dynamical tides: phenomenology and comparison to numerical simulations
• Using gravitational-wave data to constrain dynamical tides in neutron star binaries
• Discriminating between Neutron Stars and Black Holes with Imperfect Knowledge of the Maximum Neutron Star Mass
• Probing the equation of state of neutron star matter with gravitational waves from binary inspirals in light of GW170817: a brief review
• Dynamical tides in coalescing superfluid neutron star binaries with hyperon cores and their detectability with third generation gravitational-wave detectors
• Renormalizing Love: tidal effects at the third post-Newtonian order
• Beyond the linear tide: impact of the non-linear tidal response of neutron stars on gravitational waveforms from binary inspirals
• General-relativistic treatment of tidal $g$-mode resonances in coalescing binaries of neutron stars. II. As triggers for precursor flares of short gamma-ray bursts
• Gravitoelectric dynamical tides at second post-Newtonian order
• Dynamical tides during the inspiral of rapidly spinning neutron stars: Solutions beyond mode resonance
• New dynamical tide constraints from current and future gravitational wave detections of inspiralling neutron stars
• Equation of State Dependence of Nonlinear Mode-tide Coupling in Coalescing Binary Neutron Stars
• Measuring spin in coalescing binaries of neutron stars showing double precursors
• Whispers from the edge of physics
• Nonlinear mode-tide coupling in coalescing binary neutron stars with relativistic corrections