Impact of the tidal p−g instability on the gravitational wave signal from coalescing binary neutron stars
Author(s)
Essick, Reed Clasey; Vitale, Salvatore; Weinberg, Nevin N.
DownloadPhysRevD.94.103012.pdf (3.949Mb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY
Publisher Policy
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Recent studies suggest that coalescing neutron stars are subject to a fluid instability involving the nonlinear coupling of the tide to p modes and g modes. Its influence on the inspiral dynamics and thus the gravitational wave signal is, however, uncertain because we do not know precisely how the instability saturates. Here we construct a simple, physically motivated model of the saturation that allows us to explore the instability’s impact as a function of the model parameters. We find that for plausible assumptions about the saturation, current gravitational wave detectors might miss >70% of events if only point particle waveforms are used. Parameters such as the chirp mass, component masses, and luminosity distance might also be significantly biased. On the other hand, we find that relatively simple modifications to the point particle waveform can alleviate these problems and enhance the science that emerges from the detection of binary neutron stars.
Date issued
2016-11Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research; LIGO (Observatory : Massachusetts Institute of Technology)Journal
Physical Review D
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Essick, Reed, Salvatore Vitale, and Nevin N. Weinberg. “Impact of the Tidal P − G Instability on the Gravitational Wave Signal from Coalescing Binary Neutron Stars.” Physical Review D 94.10 (2016): n. pag. © 2016 American Physical Society
Version: Final published version
ISSN
2470-0010
2470-0029