First constraint on the dissipative tidal deformability of neutron stars

Abstract

The gravitational waves (GWs) emitted by neutron star binaries probe the physics of matter at supra nuclear densities. During the late inspiral, tidal deformations raised on each star by the gravitational field of its companion depend crucially on the star's internal properties. The misalignment of a star's tidal bulge with its companion's gravitational field encodes the strength of internal dissipative processes, which imprint onto the phase of the gravitational waves emitted. We here analyze GW data from the GW170817 (binary neutron star) event detected by LIGO and Virgo and find the first constraint on the dissipative tidal deformability of a neutron star. From this constraint, \emph{assuming} a temperature profile for each star in the binary, we obtain an order of magnitude bound on the averaged bulk ($\zeta$) and shear ($\eta$) viscosity of each star during the inspiral.: $\zeta \lesssim 10^{31}\mathrm{g}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ and $\eta \lesssim 10^{28}\mathrm{g}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. We forecast that these bounds could be improved by two orders of magnitude with third-generation detectors, like Cosmic Explorer, using inspiral data. These constraints already inform nuclear physics models and motivate further theoretical work to better understand the interplay between viscosity and temperature in the late inspiral of neutron stars.

7 pages, 4 figures; edits in response to referee comments; minor typos corrected

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• Impact of bulk viscosity on the post-merger gravitational-wave signal from merging neutron stars
• Premerger phenomena in neutron-star binary coalescences
• Tidal contributions to the full gravitational waveform to the second-and-a-half post-Newtonian order
• Vetting quark-star models with gravitational waves in the hierarchical Bayesian framework
• Tidal dissipation in binary neutron star inspirals from hyperon bulk viscosity: Phase modeling and parameter estimation bias
• The tidal response of a relativistic star
• Tidal Love Numbers of Neutron Stars in Horndeski Theories
• Radial Oscillations of Viscous Neutron Stars: Zero Diffusion Case
• Radial Oscillations of Viscous Stars