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Updated: Feb 15, 2026
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Measuring the Time-Evolution of Nanoscale Materials with Stopped-Flow and Small-Angle Neutron Scattering
Published on: August 6, 2021
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Neutron-Star Radius from a Population of Binary Neutron Star Mergers
Sukanta Bose1,2, Kabir Chakravarti1, Luciano Rezzolla3,4
1Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007, India.
Physical Review Letters
|February 6, 2018
Summary
Gravitational-wave astronomy can precisely measure neutron-star radii using advanced detectors. Combining inspiral mass and postmerger frequencies offers a few percent accuracy for neutron-star radius determination.
Area of Science:
- Astrophysics
- Gravitational-wave astronomy
- Nuclear physics
Background:
- Neutron stars are extremely dense objects, and their radii are crucial for understanding the equation of state of nuclear matter.
- Gravitational-wave observations provide a unique window into the dynamics of compact binary mergers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the feasibility of measuring neutron-star radii with high accuracy using gravitational-wave observations.
- To assess the impact of realistic mass and spatial distributions on measurement precision.
- To provide error estimates for future detectors like the Einstein Telescope.
Main Methods:
- Combining measurements of total mass from the inspiral phase with compactness derived from postmerger oscillation frequencies.
- Utilizing novel analytical fits to numerical relativity waveforms for error estimation.
- Employing quasi-universal relations to link frequency errors to compactness errors.
Main Results:
- Achieving several to a few percent accuracy in neutron-star radius measurements with tens of neutron-star binary observations.
- Demonstrating that measuring the average radius to within 10% is possible with 100 binaries between 100-300 Mpc.
- Providing specific error estimates for the Einstein Telescope.
Conclusions:
- Gravitational-wave observations are a powerful tool for constraining the neutron-star equation of state.
- The proposed method is robust for realistic astrophysical scenarios and detector sensitivities.
- Future gravitational-wave observatories will significantly advance our understanding of neutron-star physics.
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