15 Oct 2018 | The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and The Virgo Collaboration
The LIGO and Virgo collaborations detected gravitational waves from the coalescence of a neutron star binary system on August 17, 2017, providing a unique opportunity to probe the properties of matter under extreme conditions. This paper presents an expanded analysis of the data, assuming that both neutron stars have the same equation of state (EOS) and spins within the range observed in Galactic binary neutron stars. Two methods are employed: one based on EOS-insensitive relations between macroscopic properties and another using an efficient parametrization of the EOS function \( p(\rho) \). The analysis yields radii of the two neutron stars as \( R_1 = 10.8_{-1.0}^{+1.0} \) km and \( R_2 = 10.7_{-1.3}^{+2.1} \) km at the 90% credible level. When additional constraints from electromagnetic observations, requiring EOS support for neutron stars with masses greater than 1.97 solar masses, are applied, the radii are further constrained to \( R_1 = 11.9_{-1.4}^{+1.4} \) km and \( R_2 = 11.9_{-1.4}^{+1.4} \) km. The pressure at twice nuclear saturation density is measured to be \( 3.5_{-1.7}^{+2.7} \times 10^{34} \) dyn cm\(^{-2}\) at the 90% level. These results improve upon previous measurements and provide valuable insights into the EOS of neutron stars.The LIGO and Virgo collaborations detected gravitational waves from the coalescence of a neutron star binary system on August 17, 2017, providing a unique opportunity to probe the properties of matter under extreme conditions. This paper presents an expanded analysis of the data, assuming that both neutron stars have the same equation of state (EOS) and spins within the range observed in Galactic binary neutron stars. Two methods are employed: one based on EOS-insensitive relations between macroscopic properties and another using an efficient parametrization of the EOS function \( p(\rho) \). The analysis yields radii of the two neutron stars as \( R_1 = 10.8_{-1.0}^{+1.0} \) km and \( R_2 = 10.7_{-1.3}^{+2.1} \) km at the 90% credible level. When additional constraints from electromagnetic observations, requiring EOS support for neutron stars with masses greater than 1.97 solar masses, are applied, the radii are further constrained to \( R_1 = 11.9_{-1.4}^{+1.4} \) km and \( R_2 = 11.9_{-1.4}^{+1.4} \) km. The pressure at twice nuclear saturation density is measured to be \( 3.5_{-1.7}^{+2.7} \times 10^{34} \) dyn cm\(^{-2}\) at the 90% level. These results improve upon previous measurements and provide valuable insights into the EOS of neutron stars.