On the nature of GW190814 and its impact on the understanding of supranuclear matter

Abstract

The observation of a compact object with a mass of $2.50-2.67M_{\odot }$ on August 14, 2019, by the LIGO Scientific and Virgo collaborations (LVC) has the potential to improve our understanding of the supranuclear equation of state. While the gravitational-wave analysis of the LVC suggests that GW190814 likely was a binary black hole system, the secondary component could also have been the heaviest neutron star observed to date. We use our previously derived nuclear-physics-multimessenger astrophysics framework to address the nature of this object. Based on our findings, we determine GW190814 to be a binary black hole merger with a probability of $>99.9\%$. Even if we weaken previously employed constraints on the maximum mass of neutron stars, the probability of a binary black hole origin is still $\sim 81\%$. Furthermore, we study the impact that this observation has on our understanding of the nuclear equation of state by analyzing the allowed region in the mass-radius diagram of neutron stars for both a binary black hole or neutron star--black hole scenario. We find that the unlikely scenario in which the secondary object was a neutron star requires rather stiff equations of state with a maximum speed of sound $c_s\ge \sqrt{0.6}$ times the speed of light, while the binary black hole scenario does not offer any new insight.

9 pages, 3 figures, published version