Model-Independent Determination of the Tidal Deformability of a 1.4 $M_{\odot }$ Neutron Star from Gravitational-Wave Measurements

Abstract

Tidal deformability of a 1.4 $M_{\odot }$ neutron star provides a pivotal window into the physics of dense nuclear matter, bridging gravitational-wave(GW), electromagnetic observations and nuclear physics. In this work, we present a novel, data-driven approach to constrain ${\Lambda }_{1.4}$ without invoking specific equation-of-state(EOS) models. By interpolating directly over the mass--tidal-deformability posteriors from GW170817, we obtain an EOS-independent constraint of ${\Lambda }_{1.4}=222.89_{-98.85}^{+420.33}.$ We further combine these GW-based results with the X-ray EOS-independent constraint from \cite{Huang_2025}, deriving a multimessenger limit of ${\Lambda }_{1.4}=265.18_{-104.38}^{+237.88},$ which remains largely EOS agnostic. This framework demonstrates that higher-order terms neglected in linear expansion methods do not significantly affect ${\Lambda }_{1.4}$ estimates under current observational uncertainties. As gravitational-wave detectors improve in sensitivity and more binary neutron-star mergers are discovered, our purely data-driven strategy can serve as a robust standard baseline for extracting neutron-star interior properties without relying on unverified EOS models.

Accepted publication in ApJ

References in corpus (15)

• 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
• Tidal Love numbers of neutron stars
• Constraints on a phenomenologically parameterized neutron-star equation of state
• GW170817: Joint Constraint on the Neutron Star Equation of State from Multimessenger Observations
• Relativistic Mean-Field Hadronic Models under Nuclear Matter Constraints
• Constraints on neutron star radii based on chiral effective field theory interactions
• A NICER View of the Nearest and Brightest Millisecond Pulsar: PSR J0437$\unicode{x2013}$4715
• A NICER view of PSR J0030+0451: Implications for the dense matter equation of state
• Constraining the dense matter equation of state with new NICER mass-radius measurements and new chiral effective field theory inputs
• Fast Rotating Neutron Stars: Oscillations and Instabilities
• CREX- and PREX-II-motivated relativistic interactions and their implications for the bulk properties of nuclear matter and neutron stars
• EOSDB: The Database for Nuclear EoS
• Equation of State Independent Determination on the Radius of a 1.4 $M_{\odot }$ Neutron Star Using Mass-Radius Measurements