Degeneracy in the inference of phase transitions in the neutron star equation of state from gravitational wave data

Abstract

Gravitational wave (GW) detections of binary neutron star inspirals will be crucial for constraining the dense matter equation of state (EoS). We demonstrate a new degeneracy in the mapping from tidal deformability data to the EoS, which occurs for models with strong phase transitions. We find that there exists a new family of EoS with phase transitions that set in at different densities and that predict neutron star radii that differ by up to ~500m, but that produce nearly identical tidal deformabilities for all neutron star masses. Next generation GW detectors and advances in nuclear theory may be needed to resolve this degeneracy.

Revised version; accepted by PRL

References in corpus (41)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• PSR J0030+0451 Mass and Radius from NICER Data and Implications for the Properties of Neutron Star Matter
• A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
• A NICER View of the Massive Pulsar PSR J0740+6620 Informed by Radio Timing and XMM-Newton Spectroscopy
• Refined Mass and Geometric Measurements of the High-Mass PSR J0740+6620
• Constraints on a phenomenologically parameterized neutron-star equation of state
• Constraining the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars From Multi-Messenger Observations of GW170817
• GW170817: Joint Constraint on the Neutron Star Equation of State from Multimessenger Observations
• Neutron-star radius constraints from GW170817 and future detections
• Spectral properties of the post-merger gravitational-wave signal from binary neutron stars
• Neutron star tidal deformability and equation of state constraints
• A NICER view of PSR J0030+0451: Implications for the dense matter equation of state
• Testing Approximations of Thermal Effects in Neutron Star Merger Simulations
• On the importance of viscous dissipation and heat conduction in binary neutron-star mergers
• The Dynamics of Binary Neutron Star Mergers and of GW170817
• Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory: A kilohertz-band gravitational-wave detector in the global network
• Chiral Effective Field Theory and the High-Density Nuclear Equation of State
• Phenomenological QCD equation of state for massive neutron stars
• A New Open-Source Nuclear Equation of State Framework based on the Liquid-Drop Model with Skyrme Interaction
• Neutron Star Merger Remnants
• Sub-radian-accuracy gravitational waveforms of coalescing binary neutron stars in numerical relativity
• Studying strong phase transitions in neutron stars with gravitational waves
• Merger and post-merger of binary neutron stars with a quark-hadron crossover equation of state
• Realistic Finite-Temperature Effects in Neutron Star Merger Simulations
• Finite-temperature extension for cold neutron star equations of state
• Impact of Dynamical Tides on the Reconstruction of the Neutron Star Equation of State
• Gravitational waveforms from SpEC simulations : neutron star-neutron star and low-mass black hole-neutron star binaries
• Uncertainty limits on neutron star radius measurements with gravitational waves
• The slope, the hill, the drop, and the swoosh: Learning about the nuclear matter equation of state from the binary Love relations
• Hybrid equation of state approach in binary neutron-star merger simulations
• Nuclear Forces for Precision Nuclear Physics -- a collection of perspectives
• Impact of the nuclear symmetry energy on the post-merger phase of a binary neutron star coalescence
• Resonant tides in binary neutron star mergers: analytical-numerical relativity study
• The Radius of PSR J0740+6620 from NICER and XMM-Newton Data
• Binary neutron star mergers as a probe of quark-hadron crossover equations of state
• Characterizing the breakdown of quasi-universality in the post-merger gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers
• Finite-temperature effects in dynamical-spacetime binary neutron star merger simulations: Validation of the parametric approach
• Exposing Gravitational Waves below the Quantum Shot Noise
• Constraints on the Neutron Star Equation of State from GW170817
• Probing neutron stars with the full pre-merger and post-merger gravitational wave signal from binary coalescences
• GW170817 and GW190814: tension on the maximum mass

Cited by in corpus (17)

• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• What is the nature of the HESS J1731-347 compact object?
• Inference of neutron-star properties with unified crust-core equations of state for parameter estimation
• Detectability of QCD phase transitions in binary neutron star mergers: Bayesian inference with the next generation gravitational wave detectors
• Central Speed of Sound, Trace Anomaly and Observables of Neutron Stars from Perturbative Analyses of Scaled TOV Equations
• Astrophysics and Nuclear Physics Informed Interactions in Dense Matter: Inclusion of PSR J0437-4715
• Detectability of a phase transition in neutron star matter with third-generation gravitational wave interferometers
• Interface modes in inspiralling neutron stars: A gravitational-wave probe of first-order phase transitions
• Novel Scalings of Neutron Star Properties from Analyzing Dimensionless Tolman--Oppenheimer--Volkoff Equations
• Tidal Deformability Doppelgangers: Implications of a low-density phase transition in the neutron star equation of state
• Assessing equation of state-independent relations for neutron stars with nonparametric models
• Mass and tidal parameter extraction from gravitational waves of binary neutron stars mergers using deep learning
• On the Testability of the Quark-Hadron Transition Using Gravitational Waves From Merging Binary Neutron Stars
• Crust (Unified) Tool for Equation-of-state Reconstruction (CUTER) v2
• Neutron-quark stars: Discerning viable alternatives for the higher-density part of the equation of state of compact stars
• New Insights into Supradense Matter from Dissecting Scaled Stellar Structure Equations
• Detecting the third family of compact stars with normalizing flows