We propose a method to constrain the variation of the gravitational constant $G$ with cosmic time using gravitational-wave (GW) observations of merging binary neutron stars. The method essentially relies on the fact that the maximum and minimum allowed masses of neutron stars at a particular cosmic epoch has a simple dependence on the value of $G$ at that epoch. GWs carry an imprint of the value of $G$ at the time of the merger. Thus, if the value of $G$ at merger is significantly different from its current value, the masses of the neutron stars inferred from the GW observations will be inconsistent with the theoretically allowed range. This enables us to place bounds on the variation of $G$ between the merger epoch and the present epoch. Using the observation of the binary neutron star system GW170817, we constrain the fractional difference in $G$ between the merger and the current epoch to be in the range $-1 \lesssim ΔG/G \lesssim 8$. Assuming a monotonic variation in $G$, this corresponds to a bound on the average rate of change of $-7 \times 10^{-9}~\mathrm{yr}^{-1} \le \dot{G}/G \le 5 \times 10^{-8}~\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ between these epochs. Future observations will put tight constraints on the deviation of $G$ over vast cosmological epochs not probed by other observations.
We describe the search for gravitational waves from inspiraling neutron star binary systems, using data from the first Scientific Run of the LIGO Science Collaboration.
This note describes fitting formulae for the gravitational waveforms generated by a rapidly rotating neutron star (e.g., newly-formed in the core collapse of a supernova) as it evolves from an initial axisymmetric configuration toward a triaxial ellipsoid.
We report on numerical results from an independent formalism to describe the quasi-equilibrium structure of nonsynchronous binary neutron stars in general relativity. This is an important independent test of controversial numerical hydrodynamic simulations which suggested that nonsynchronous neutron stars in a close binary can experience compression prior to the last stable circular orbit. We show that, for compact enough stars the interior density increases slightly as irrotational binary neutron stars approach their last orbits. The magnitude of the effect, however, is much smaller than that…
We report on numerical results from an independent formalism to describe the quasi-equilibrium structure of nonsynchronous binary neutron stars in general relativity. This is an important independent test of controversial numerical hydrodynamic simulations which suggested that nonsynchronous neutron stars in a close binary can experience compression and even collapse prior to the last stable circular orbit. We show that the interior density indeed increases as irrotational binary neutron stars approach their last orbits for particular values of the compaction ratio. The observed compression is…
Detection of continuous gravitational waves from rapidly-spinning neutron stars opens up the possibility of examining their internal physics. We develop a framework that leverages a future continuous gravitational wave detection to infer a neutron star's moment of inertia, equatorial ellipticity, and the component of the magnetic dipole moment perpendicular to its rotation axis. We assume that the neutron star loses rotational kinetic energy through both gravitational wave and electromagnetic radiation, and that the distance to the neutron star can be measured, but do not assume electromagneti…
Gravitational waves from merging neutron stars are expected to be observed in the next 5 years. We explore the potential impact of matter effects on gravitational waves from merging double neutron-star binaries. If neutron star binaries exist with chirp masses less than roughly 1 solar mass and typical neutron-star radii are larger than roughly 14 km, or if neutron-star radii are larger than 15-16 km for the chirp masses of galactic neutron-star binaries, then matter will have a significant impact on the effectiveness of a point-particle-based search at Advanced LIGO design sensitivity (roughl…
Recent detections by the gravitational wave facilities LIGO/Virgo have opened a window to study the internal structure of neutron stars through the gravitational waves emitted during their coalescence. In this work we explore, through numerical simulations, the gravitational radiation produced by the merger of binary neutron stars with dark matter particles trapped on their interior, focusing on distinguishable imprints produced by these dark matter cores. Our results reveal the presence of a strong m = 1 mode in the waveforms during the post-merger stage, together with other relevant features…
We present a code to construct initial data for binary neutron star systems in which the stars are rotating. Our code, based on a formalism developed by Tichy, allows for arbitrary rotation axes of the neutron stars and is able to achieve rotation rates near rotational breakup. We compute the neutron star angular momentum through quasi-local angular momentum integrals. When constructing irrotational binary neutron stars, we find a very small residual dimensionless spin of $\sim 2\times 10^{-4}$. Evolutions of rotating neutron star binaries show that the magnitude of the stars' angular momentum…
Studies have shown that emission of gravitational wave drives an instability in the $r$-modes of young rapidly rotating neutron stars carrying away most of the angular momentum through gravitational wave emission in the first year or so after their formation. Magnetic field plays a crucial role in the evolution of these $r$-modes and hence the evolution of the neutron star itself. An attempt is made here to investigate the role of magnetic field in the evolution of $r$-mode instability and detectibility of gravitational waves emitted by a newly born, hot and rapidly and differentially rotating…
We study the non-radial oscillations of relativistic neutron stars, in particular the (fundamental) f-modes, which are believed to be the most relevant for the gravitational wave emission of perturbed isolated stars. The expected frequencies of the f-modes are compared to the sensitivity range of Mario Schenberg, the Brazilian gravitational wave spherical detector.
We present a Bayesian data analysis pipeline for testing GR using gravitational wave signals from coalescing compact binaries, and in particular binary neutron stars. In this study, we investigate its performance when sources with spins are taken into account.
Neutron star interiors are a fantastic laboratory for high density physics in extreme environments. Probing this system with standard electromagnetic observations is, however, a challenging endeavour, as the radiation tends to be scattered by the outer layers and the interstellar medium. Gravitational waves, on the other hand, while challenging to detect, interact weakly with matter and are likely to carry a clean imprint of the high density interior of the star. In particular long lived, i.e. `continuous' signals from isolated neutron stars can carry a signature of deformations, possibly in c…
In the context of binary inspiral of mixed neutron star - black hole systems, we investigate the excitation of the neutron star oscillation modes by the orbital motion. We study generic eccentric orbits and show that tidal interaction can excite the f-mode oscillations of the star by computing the amount of energy and angular momentum deposited into the star by the orbital motion tidal forces via closed form analytic expressions. We study the f-mode oscillations of cold neutron stars using recent microscopic nuclear equations of state, and we compute their imprint into the emitted gravitationa…
LIGO and Virgo recently observed the first binary neutron star merger, demonstrating that gravitational-waves offer the ability to probe how matter behaves in one of the most extreme environments in the Universe. However, the gravitational-wave signal emitted by an inspiraling binary neutron star system is only weakly dependent on the equation of state and extracting this information is challenging. Previous studies have focused mainly on binary systems where the neutron stars are spinning slowly and the main imprint of neutron star matter in the inspiral signal is due to tidal effects. For bi…
Gravitational waves from binary neutron stars in quasiequilibrium circular orbits are computed using an approximate method which we propose in this paper. In the first step of this method, we prepare general relativistic irrotational binary neutron stars in a quasiequilibrium circular orbit, neglecting gravitational waves. We adopt the so-called conformal flatness approximation for a three-metric to obtain the quasiequilibrium states in this paper. In the second step, we compute gravitational waves, solving linear perturbation equations in the background spacetime of the quasiequilibrium state…
We introduce deep learning time-series forecasting for gravitational wave detection of binary neutron star mergers. This method enables the identification of these signals in real advanced LIGO data up to 30 seconds before merger. When applied to GW170817, our deep learning forecasting method identifies the presence of this gravitational wave signal 10 seconds before merger. This novel approach requires a single GPU for inference, and may be used as part of an early warning system for time-sensitive multi-messenger searches.
We show that gravitational radiation drives an instability in hot young rapidly rotating neutron stars. This instability occurs primarily in the l=2 r-mode and will carry away most of the angular momentum of a rapidly rotating star by gravitational radiation. On the timescale needed to cool a young neutron star to about T=10^9 K (about one year) this instability can reduce the rotation rate of a rapidly rotating star to about 0.076Ω_K, where Ω_K is the Keplerian angular velocity where mass shedding occurs. In older colder neutron stars this instability is suppressed by viscous effects, allowin…
We calculate quasi-normal f- and g-modes of a neutron star with density discontinuity, which may appear in a phase transition at extreme high density. We find that discontinuity will reflect largely on the f-mode, and that the g-mode could also be important for a less massive star.
Most gravitational-wave signals from binary neutron star coalescences are too weak to be individually resolved with current detectors. We demonstrate how to extract a population of sub-threshold binary neutron star signals using Bayesian parameter estimation. Assuming a merger rate of one signal every two hours, we find that this gravitational-wave background can be detected after approximately three months of observation with Advanced LIGO and Virgo at design sensitivity, versus several years using the standard cross-correlation algorithm. We show that the algorithm can distinguish different …
The spatially conformally flat approximation (CFA) is a viable method to deduce initial conditions for the subsequent evolution of binary neutron stars employing the full Einstein equations. Here we review the status of the original formulation of the CFA for the general relativistic hydrodynamic initial conditions of binary neutron stars. We illustrate the stability of the conformally flat condition on the hydrodynamics by numerically evolving ~100 quasi-circular orbits. We illustrate the use of this approximation for orbiting neutron stars in the quasi-circular orbit approximation to demonst…
We compare different gravitational-wave extraction methods used in three-dimensional nonlinear simulations against linear simulations of perturbations of spherical spacetimes with matter. We present results from fully general-relativistic simulations of a system composed by an oscillating and non-rotating star emitting gravitational radiation. Results about the onset of non-linear effects are also shown.
General Relativistic Entropic Acceleration (GREA) gives a general framework in which to study multiple out-of-equilibrium phenomena in the context of general relativity, like the late accelerated expansion of the universe or the formation of galaxies and the large scale structure of the universe. Here we analyze the conditions for collapse of a star of degenerate neutrons in the presence of entropy production due to the gravitational collapse itself. We find that the final mass and radius of the neutron star differs from that obtained with the adiabatic Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation by a…
We provide a bird's-eye view of neutron-star seismology, which aims to probe the extreme physics associated with these objects, in the context of gravitational-wave astronomy. Focussing on the fundamental mode of oscillation, which is an efficient gravitational-wave emitter, we consider the seismology aspects of a number of astrophysically relevant scenarios, ranging from transients (like pulsar glitches and magnetar flares), to the dynamics of tides in inspiralling compact binaries and the eventual merged object and instabilities acting in isolated, rapidly rotating, neutron stars. The aim is…
For further gravitational wave (GW) detections, it is significant to invent a technique to reduce all kinds of mirror displacement noise dominant at low frequencies for ground-based detectors. The neutron displacement-noise-free interferometer (DFI) is one of the tools to reduce all the mirror displacement noise at lower frequencies. In this paper, we describe a further simplified configuration of a neutron DFI in terms of neutron incidence direction. In the new configuration, neutrons enter the interferometer with unidirectional incidence at four speeds as opposed to two bidirectional inciden…
Rapidly spinning neutron stars with non-axisymmetric mass distributions are expected to generate quasi-monochromatic continuous gravitational waves. While many searches for unknown, isolated spinning neutron stars have been carried out, there have been no previous searches for unknown sources in binary systems. Since current search methods for unknown, isolated neutron stars are already computationally limited, expanding the parameter space searched to include binary systems is a formidable challenge. We present a new hierarchical binary search method called TwoSpect, which exploits the period…
We search for coincident gravitational wave signals from inspiralling neutron star binaries using LIGO and TAMA300 data taken during early 2003. Using a simple trigger exchange method, we perform an inter-collaboration coincidence search during times when TAMA300 and only one of the LIGO sites were operational. We find no evidence of any gravitational wave signals. We place an observational upper limit on the rate of binary neutron star coalescence with component masses between 1 and 3 M_sun of 49 per year per Milky Way equivalent galaxy at a 90% confidence level. The methods developed during …
Gravitational radiation drives an instability in the r-modes of young rapidly rotating neutron stars. This instability is expected to carry away most of the angular momentum of the star by gravitational radiation emission, leaving a star rotating at about 100 Hz. In this paper we model in a simple way the development of the instability and evolution of the neutron star during the year-long spindown phase. This allows us to predict the general features of the resulting gravitational waveform. We show that a neutron star formed in the Virgo cluster could be detected by the LIGO and VIRGO gravita…
Neutron stars are discussed as laboratories of physics of strong gravitational fields. The mass of a neutron star is split into matter energy and gravitational field energy contributions. The energy of the gravitational field of neutron stars is calculated with three different approaches which give the same result. It is found that up to one half of the gravitational mass of maximum mass neutron stars is comprised by the gravitational field energy. Results are shown for a number of realistic equations of state of neutron star matter.
We study the effect of the neutron star spin -- kick velocity alignment observed in young radio pulsars on the coalescence rate of binary neutron stars. Two scenarios of the neutron star formation are considered: when the kick is always present and when it is small or absent if a neutron star is formed in a binary system due to electron-capture degenerate core collapse. The effect is shown to be especially strong for large kick amplitudes and tight alignments, reducing the expected galactic rate of binary neutron star coalescences compared to calculations with randomly directed kicks. The spin…
We investigate the dynamic stability of inspiraling neutron stars by performing multiple-orbit numerical relativity simulations of the binary neutron star inspiral process. By introducing eccentricities in the orbits of the neutron stars, significant changes in orbital separation are obtained within orbital timescales. We find that as the binary system evolves from apastron to periastron (as the binary separation decreases), the central rest mass density of each star decreases, thus stabilizing the stars against individual prompt collapse. As the binary system evolves from periastron to apastr…
The discovery of two neutron star-black hole coalescences by LIGO and Virgo brings the total number of likely neutron stars observed in gravitational waves to six. We perform the first inference of the mass distribution of this extragalactic population of neutron stars. In contrast to the bimodal Galactic population detected primarily as radio pulsars, the masses of neutron stars in gravitational-wave binaries are thus far consistent with a uniform distribution, with a greater prevalence of high-mass neutron stars. The maximum mass in the gravitational-wave population agrees with that inferred…
In this paper a quantum-mechanical behaviour of neutrons in gravitational fields is considered. A first estimation is made using the semiclassical approximation, neglecting General Relativity, magnetic and rotation effects, for neutrons in weakly bound states in the weak gravitational field of the Earth. This result was generalized for a case, in which the Randall - Sundrum correction to Newton's gravitational law on the small scales was applied. Application of the results to Neutron Star physics is considered and further possible perspectives are discussed.
We identify a new dynamical mechanism for a strong scalar gravitational field effect. To illustrate this mechanism, we investigate the parametric excitation and emission of scalar gravitational waves by a radially pulsating model neutron star.
Non-axysymmetric, fast-spinning unknown neutron stars in binary systems may emit continuous gravitational waves (nearly-monochromatic long-duration signals) which can be detected by ground-based detectors like LIGO and Virgo. In this paper we present a new pipeline, called $\textit{BinarySkyHough}$, that can carry out all-sky searches for neutron stars in binary systems by exploiting the usage of graphics processing units. We give a detailed explanation of this new pipeline, and we present simulations which allow us to estimate the sensitivity of the new pipeline, which is approximately twice …
Gravitational waves emitted from the coalescence of neutron star binaries open a new window to probe matter and fundamental physics in unexplored, extreme regimes. To extract information about the supranuclear matter inside neutron stars and the properties of the compact binary systems, robust theoretical prescriptions are required. We give an overview about general features of the dynamics and the gravitational wave signal during the binary neutron star coalescence. We briefly describe existing analytical and numerical approaches to investigate the highly dynamical, strong-field region during…
Neutron stars are excellent emitters of gravitational waves. Squeezing matter beyond nuclear densities invites exotic physical processes, many of which violently transfer large amounts of mass at relativistic velocities, disrupting spacetime and generating copious quantities of gravitational radiation. I review mechanisms for generating gravitational waves with neutron stars. This includes gravitational waves from radio and millisecond pulsars, magnetars, accreting systems and newly born neutron stars, with mechanisms including magnetic and thermoelastic deformations, various stellar oscillati…
We present a novel universal relation for binary neutron star mergers with long-lived neutron star remnants: inspired by recent work based on numerical relativity simulations, we propose a novel approach using perturbative calculations that allow us to relate the pre-merger neutron star binary tidal deformability to the effective compactness of the post-merger remnant. Our results allow for the prediction of the stellar parameters of a long-lived remnant neutron star from the study of gravitational waves emitted during the pre-merger phase.
The gravitational-wave signal from the merger of two neutron stars cannot be easily differentiated from the signal produced by a comparable-mass mixed binary of a neutron star and a black hole. Indeed, both binary types can account for the gravitational-wave signal GW170817 even if its electromagnetic counterpart emission is taken into account. We propose a method that {requires neither information from the post-inspiral phase of the binary nor an electromagnetic counterpart} to identify mixed binaries of neutron stars merging with low-mass black holes using gravitational-waves alone. This met…
Pulsars in binary systems have been very successful to test the validity of general relativity in the strong field regime. So far, such binaries include neutron star-white dwarf (NS-WD) and neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) systems. It is commonly believed that a neutron star-black hole (NS-BH) binary will be much superior for this purpose. But in what sense is this true? Does it apply to all possible deviations?
We consider a simulated population of isolated Galactic neutron stars. The rotational frequency of each neutron star evolves through a combination of electromagnetic and gravitational wave emission. The magnetic field strength dictates the dipolar emission, and the ellipticity (a measure of a neutron star's deformation) dictates the gravitational wave emission. Through both analytic and numerical means, we assess the detectability of the Galactic neutron star population and bound the magnetic field strength and ellipticity parameter space of Galactic neutron stars with or without a direct grav…
Gravitational perturbations of neutron stars and black holes are well known sources of gravitational radiation. If the compact object is immersed in or endowed with a magnetic field, the gravitational perturbations would couple to electromagnetic perturbations and potentially trigger synergistic electromagnetic signatures. We present a detailed analytic calculation of the dynamics of coupled gravitational and electromagnetic perturbations for both neutron stars and black holes. We discuss the prospects for detecting the electromagnetic waves in these scenarios and the potential that these wave…
Extremely powerful magnetic fields are contained inside neutron stars. Their effect is to deform the shape of the star, leading to the emission of continuous gravitational waves. The magnetic deformation of neutron stars depends on the details of their magnetic field, that is its geometry and strength. Moreover, it depends on their composition, described by the equation of state. Unfortunately, both the configuration of the magnetic field and the equation of state of neutron stars are unkown, and assessing the detectability of continuous gravitational waves from neutron stars suffers from thes…
The possibility of a gravitational phase transition, especially with respect to neutron stars is investigated. First, a semiclassical treatment is given, predicting a gravitational London penetration depth of 12km for neutron stars. Second, the problem is considered from a Ginzburg-Landau point of view. A gravitational Meissner effect, a gravitational Aharanov-Bohm type effect and a gravitational ferromagnetic type phase are predicted. Finally, a field theoretic consideration predicts a mass term for the graviton below a certain critical temperature.
Rotating neutron stars can emit continuous gravitational waves, which have not yet been detected. We present a search for continuous gravitational waves from unknown neutron stars in binary systems with orbital period between 15 and 45 days. This is the first time that Advanced LIGO data and the recently developed BinarySkyHough pipeline have been used in a search of this kind. No detections are reported, and upper limits on the gravitational wave amplitude are calculated, which improve the previous results by a factor of 17.
Continuous wave gravitational radiation from isolated rotating neutron stars is discussed. The general waveform and orders of magnitude for the amplitude are presented for various known pulsars. The specific case of gravitational radiation resulting from the distortion induced by the stellar magnetic field is presented. Finally some preliminary results about the signal from the whole population of neutron stars in the Galaxy are discussed.
Galactic neutron stars are a promising source of gravitational waves in the analysis band of detectors such as LIGO and Virgo. Previous searches for gravitational waves from neutron stars have focused on the detection of individual neutron stars, which are either nearby or highly non-spherical. Here we consider the stochastic gravitational-wave signal arising from the ensemble of Galactic neutron stars. Using a population synthesis model, we estimate the single-sigma sensitivity of current and planned gravitational-wave observatories to average neutron star ellipticity $ε$ as a function of the…
Gravitational wave observations can potentially measure properties of neutron star equations of state by measuring departures from the point-particle limit of the gravitational waveform produced in the late inspiral of a neutron star binary. Numerical simulations of inspiraling neutron star binaries computed for equations of state with varying stiffness are compared. As the stars approach their final plunge and merger, the gravitational wave phase accumulates more rapidly if the neutron stars are more compact. This suggests that gravitational wave observations at frequencies around 1 kHz will …
We present our first successful numerical results of 3D general relativistic simulations in which the Einstein equation as well as the hydrodynamic equations are fully solved. This paper is especially devoted to simulations of test problems such as spherical dust collapse, stability test of perturbed spherical stars, and preservation of (approximate) equilibrium states of rapidly rotating neutron star and/or corotating binary neutron stars. These test simulations confirm that simulations of coalescing binary neutron stars are feasible in a numerical relativity code. It is illustrated that usin…
We show that accreting neutron stars in binary systems or in Landau-Thorne-Zytkow objects are good candidates for continuous gravitational wave emission. Their gravitational radiation is strong enough to be detected by the next generation of detectors having a typical noise of 10^{-23} Hz^{-1/2}.
We show that the maximum and the minimum mass of merging neutron stars can be estimated with upcoming gravitational wave observations. We simulate populations of binary neutron star signals and model their mass distribution including upper and lower cutoffs. The lower(upper) limit can be measured to $\sim 0.2(0.1)\text{M}_{\odot}$ with $50$ detections if the mass distribution supports neutron stars with masses close to the cutoffs. The upper mass limit informs about the high density properties of the neutron star equation of state, while the lower limit signals the divide between neutron stars…
In this paper I present a method to enhance the search sensitivity for long transient Gravitational Waves produced by Neutron Star instabilities. This method consists in a selective image filter, called Triangular Filter, to be applied to data spectrograms. It is shown that thanks to this implementation a 20% gain in sensitivity is achievable.
Latest general relativistic simulations for merger of binary neutron stars with realistic equations of state (EOSs) show that a hypermassive neutron star of an ellipsoidal figure is formed after the merger if the total mass is smaller than a threshold value which depends on the EOSs. The effective amplitude of quasiperiodic gravitational waves from such hypermassive neutron stars is $\sim 6$--$7 \times 10^{-21}$ at a distance of 50 Mpc, which may be large enough for detection by advanced laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors although the frequency is high $\sim 3$ kHz. We point ou…
We analyze the stability of relativistic, quasi-equilibrium binary neutron stars in synchronous circular orbit. We explore stability against radial collapse to black holes prior to merger, and against orbital plunge. We apply theorems based on turning points along uniformly rotating sequences of constant angular momentum and rest mass to locate the onset of secular instabilities. We find that inspiraling binary neutron stars are stable against radial collapse to black holes all the way down to the innermost stable circular orbit.
We perform fully relativistic calculations of binary neutron stars in quasi-equilibrium circular orbits. We integrate Einstein's equations together with the relativistic equation of hydrostatic equilibrium to solve the initial value problem for equal-mass binaries of arbitrary separation. We construct sequences of constant rest mass and identify the innermost stable circular orbit and its angular velocity. We find that the quasi-equilibrium maximum allowed mass of a neutron star in a close binary is slightly larger than in isolation.
We report application of a method for extracting gravitational waves to three-dimensional numerical simulation on coalescing binary neutron stars. We found the extracted wave form includes the componets corresponding to the quadrupole part in the Newtonian potential of the background metric, if it is monitored at a position not far from the central stars. We present how to eliminate it.
We carry out numerical-relativity simulations of coalescing binary neutron stars in a scalar-tensor theory that admits spontaneous scalarization. We model neutron stars with realistic equations of state. We choose the free parameters of the theory taking into account the constraints imposed by the latest observations of neutron-star-- white-dwarf binaries with pulsar timing. We show that even within those severe constraints, scalarization can still affect the evolution of the binary neutron stars not only during the late inspiral, but also during the merger stage. We also confirm that even whe…
Can one distinguish a binary black hole undergoing a merger from a binary neutron star if the individual compact companions have masses that fall inside the so-called mass gap of $3-5\ M_\odot$? For neutron stars, achieving such masses typically requires extreme compactness and in this work we present initial data and evolutions of binary neutron stars initially in quasiequilibrium circular orbits having a compactness $C=0.336$. These are the most compact, nonvacuum, quasiequilibrium binary objects that have been constructed and evolved to date, including boson stars. The compactness achieved …
The recent LIGO-Virgo detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral event GW170817 and the discovery of its accompanying electromagnetic signals mark a new era for multimessenger astronomy. In the coming years, advanced gravitational-wave detectors are likely to detect tens to hundreds of similar events. Neutron stars in binaries can possess significant spin, which is imprinted on the gravitational waveform via the effective spin parameter $χ_\text{eff}$. We explore the astrophysical inferences made possible by gravitational-wave measurements of $χ_\text{eff}$. First, us…
