Resonant Shattering Flares as Multimessenger Probes of the Nuclear Symmetry Energy

Abstract

The behaviour of the nuclear symmetry energy near saturation density is important for our understanding of dense nuclear matter. This density dependence can be parameterised by the nuclear symmetry energy and its derivatives evaluated at nuclear saturation density. In this work we show that the core-crust interface mode of a neutron star is sensitive to these parameters, through the (density-weighted) shear-speed within the crust, which is in turn dependent on the symmetry energy profile of dense matter. We calculate the frequency at which the neutron star quadrupole ($\ell =2$) crust-core interface mode must be driven by the tidal field of its binary partner to trigger a Resonant Shattering Flare (RSF). We demonstrate that coincident multimessenger timing of an RSF and gravitational wave chirp from a neutron star merger would enable us to place constraints on the symmetry energy parameters that are competitive with those from current nuclear experiments.

15 pages, 19 figures, accepted in MNRAS

References in corpus (16)

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• 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
• Modeling Neutron Star Oscillations in a Fixed General Relativistic Background Including Solid Crust Dynamics