Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (19)
- Preprint (4)
- Contribution to a Periodical (2)
- Conference Proceeding (1)
Has Fulltext
- yes (26) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (26)
Keywords
- General relativity (2)
- Binary pulsars (1)
- Black holes (1)
- Collective flow (1)
- Compact binary stars (1)
- Compact objects (1)
- General relativity equations & solutions (1)
- Gravitational collapse (1)
- Magnetohydrodynamics (1)
- Neutron stars (1)
- Nucleosynthesis in explosive environments (1)
- Quark-gluon plasma (1)
- Relativistic heavy-ion collisions (1)
- Stellar remnants (1)
- Transient & explosive astronomical phenomena (1)
- central schemes (1)
- entropy limited hydrodynamics (1)
- flux limiters (1)
- gravitational wave (1)
- neutron-star-merger (1)
- numerical methods (1)
- quark matter (1)
Institute
- Physik (25)
- Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) (15)
- ELEMENTS (3)
- Präsidium (2)
A considerable effort has been dedicated recently to the construction of generic equations of state (EOSs) for matter in neutron stars. The advantage of these approaches is that they can provide model-independent information on the interior structure and global properties of neutron stars. Making use of more than 106 generic EOSs, we assess the validity of quasi-universal relations of neutron-star properties for a broad range of rotation rates, from slow rotation up to the mass-shedding limit. In this way, we are able to determine with unprecedented accuracy the quasi-universal maximum-mass ratio between rotating and nonrotating stars and reveal the existence of a new relation for the surface oblateness, i.e., the ratio between the polar and equatorial proper radii. We discuss the impact that our findings have on the imminent detection of new binary neutron-star mergers and how they can be used to set new and more stringent limits on the maximum mass of nonrotating neutron stars, as well as to improve the modeling of the X-ray emission from the surface of rotating stars.
Post-merger gravitational-wave signal from neutron-star binaries: a new look at an old problem
(2023)
The spectral properties of the post-merger gravitational-wave signal from a binary of neutron stars encodes a variety of information about the features of the system and of the equation of state describing matter around and above nuclear saturation density. Characterising the properties of such a signal is an “old” problem, which first emerged when a number of frequencies were shown to be related to the properties of the binary through “quasi-universal” relations. Here we take a new look at this old problem by computing the properties of the signal in terms of the Weyl scalar ψ4. In this way, and using a database of more than 100 simulations, we provide the first evidence for a new instantaneous frequency, f ψ4 0, associated with the instant of quasi timesymmetry in the postmerger dynamics, and which also follows a quasi-universal relation. We also derive a new quasi-universal relation for the merger frequency f h mer, which provides a description of the data that is four times more accurate than previous expressions while requiring fewer fitting coefficients. Finally, consistently with the findings of numerous studies before ours, and using an enlarged ensamble of binary systems we point out that the ℓ = 2, m = 1 gravitational-wave mode could become comparable with the traditional ℓ = 2, m = 2 mode on sufficiently long timescales, with strain amplitudes in a ratio |h 21|/|h 22| ∼ 0.1 − 1 under generic orientations of the binary, which could be measured by present detectors for signals with large signal-to-noise ratio or by third-generation detectors for generic signals should no collapse occur.
We have investigated the systematic differences introduced when performing a Bayesian-inference analysis of the equation of state (EOS) of neutron stars employing either variable- or constant-likelihood functions. The former has the advantage of retaining the full information on the distributions of the measurements, making exhaustive usage of the data. The latter, on the other hand, has the advantage of a much simpler implementation and reduced computational costs. In both approaches, the EOSs have identical priors and have been built using the sound speed parameterization method so as to satisfy the constraints from X-ray and gravitational waves observations, as well as those from chiral effective theory and perturbative quantum chromodynamics. In all cases, the two approaches lead to very similar results and the 90% confidence levels essentially overlap. Some differences do appear, but in regions where the probability density is extremely small and are mostly due to the sharp cutoff on the binary tidal deformability L˜ 720 set in the constant-likelihood approach. Our analysis has also produced two additional results. First, an inverse correlation between the normalized central number density, nc,TOV/ns, and the radius of a maximally massive star, RTOV. Second, and most importantly, it has confirmed the relation between the chirp mass and the binary tidal deformability. The importance of this result is that it relates chirp, which is measured very accurately, and L˜ , which contains important information on the EOS. Hence, when chirp is measured in future detections, our relation can be used to set tight constraints on L˜ .
Post-merger gravitational-wave signal from neutron-star binaries: a new look at an old problem
(2023)
The spectral properties of the post-merger gravitational-wave signal from a binary of neutron stars encodes a variety of information about the features of the system and of the equation of state describing matter around and above nuclear saturation density. Characterizing the properties of such a signal is an “old” problem, which first emerged when a number of frequencies were shown to be related to the properties of the binary through “quasiuniversal” relations. Here we take a new look at this old problem by computing the properties of the signal in terms of the Weyl scalar ψ4. In this way, and using a database of more than 100 simulations, we provide the first evidence for a new instantaneous frequency, y f0 4, associated with the instant of quasi-time-symmetry in the dynamics, and which also follows a quasi-universal relation. We also derive a new quasi-universal relation for the merger frequency f h mer, which provides a description of the data that is 4 times more accurate than previous expressions while requiring fewer fitting coefficients. Finally, consistent with the findings of numerous studies before ours, and using an enlarged ensemble of binary systems, we point out that the ℓ = 2, m = 1 gravitational-wave mode could become comparable with the traditional ℓ = 2, m = 2 mode on sufficiently long timescales, with strain amplitudes in a ratio |h21|/|h22| ∼ 0.1–1 under generic orientations of the binary, which could be measured by present detectors for signals with a large signal-to-noise ratio or by third-generation detectors for generic signals should no collapse occur.
The amplification of magnetic fields plays an important role in explaining numerous astrophysical phenomena associated with binary neutron star mergers, such as mass ejection and the powering of short gamma-ray bursts. Magnetic fields in isolated neutron stars are often assumed to be confined to a small region near the stellar surface, while they are normally taken to fill the whole star in numerical modeling of mergers. By performing high-resolution, global, and high-order general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we investigate the impact of a purely crustal magnetic field and contrast it with the standard configuration consisting of a dipolar magnetic field with the same magnetic energy but filling the whole star. While the crust configurations are very effective in generating strong magnetic fields during the Kelvin–Helmholtz-instability stage, they fail to achieve the same level of magnetic-field amplification of the full-star configurations. This is due to the lack of magnetized material in the neutron-star interiors to be used for further turbulent amplification and to the surface losses of highly magnetized matter in the crust configurations. Hence, the final magnetic energies in the two configurations differ by more than 1 order of magnitude. We briefly discuss the impact of these results on astrophysical observables and how they can be employed to deduce the magnetic topology in merging binaries.
Für die anstehende Runde der Exzellenzstrategie des Bundes und der Länder bewirbt sich die Goethe-Universität Frankfurt mit vier neuen Clustern zu den Forschungsthemen Vertrauen im Konflikt (CONTRUST), Infektion und Entzündung (EMTHERA), Ursprung der schweren Elemente (ELEMENTS) und zelluläre Architekturen (SCALE). Die Anträge vereinen die Kompetenzen und zukunftsweisenden Ideen der Goethe-Universität mit denen der Kolleg*innen des Verbunds der Rhein-Main-Universitäten (RMU) und weiterer Partner der vier großen Organisationen der außeruniversitären Forschung. Der seit 2019 bestehende Exzellenzcluster Cardiopulmonary Institute (CPI) wird im kommenden Jahr direkt einen Vollantrag einreichen.
A considerable effort has been dedicated recently to the construction of generic equations of state (EOSs) for matter in neutron stars. The advantage of these approaches is that they can provide model-independent information on the interior structure and global properties of neutron stars. Making use of more than 106 generic EOSs, we asses the validity of quasi-universal relations of neutron star properties for a broad range of rotation rates, from slow-rotation up to the mass-shedding limit. In this way, we are able to determine with unprecedented accuracy the quasi-universal maximum-mass ratio between rotating and nonrotating stars and reveal the existence of a new relation for the surface oblateness, i.e., the ratio between the polar and equatorial proper radii. We discuss the impact that our findings have on the imminent detection of new binary neutron-star mergers and how they can be used to set new and more stringent limits on the maximum mass of nonrotating neutron stars, as well as to improve the modelling of the X-ray emission from the surface of rotating stars.
Determining the phase structure of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and its Equation of State (EOS) at densities and temperatures realized inside neutron stars and their mergers is a long-standing open problem. The holographic V-QCD framework provides a model for the EOS of dense and hot QCD, which describes the deconfinement phase transition between a dense baryonic and a quark matter phase. We use this model in fully general relativistic hydrodynamic (GRHD) simulations to study the formation of quark matter and the emitted gravitational wave signal of binary systems that are similar to the first ever observed neutron star merger event GW170817.
Using full 3+1 dimensional general-relativistic hydrodynamic simulations of equal- and unequal-mass neutron-star binaries with properties that are consistent with those inferred from the inspiral of GW170817, we perform a detailed study of the quark-formation processes that could take place after merger. We use three equations of state consistent with current pulsar observations derived from a novel finite-temperature framework based on V-QCD, a non-perturbative gauge/gravity model for Quantum Chromodynamics. In this way, we identify three different post-merger stages at which mixed baryonic and quark matter, as well as pure quark matter, are generated. A phase transition triggered collapse already ≲ 10 ms after the merger reveals that the softest version of our equations of state is actually inconsistent with the expected second-long post-merger lifetime of GW170817. Our results underline the impact that gravitational wave observations of binary neutron-star mergers can have in constraining the equation of state of nuclear matter, especially in its most extreme regimes.