Kilonova Emissions from Neutron Star Merger Remnants: Implications for the Nuclear Equation of State

Kilonova Emissions from Neutron Star Merger Remnants: Implications for the Nuclear Equation of State

Kelsey A. Lund, Rahul Somasundaram, Gail C. McLaughlin, Jonah M. Miller, Matthew R. Mumpower, Ingo Tews.
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Abstract

Multimessenger observations of binary neutron star mergers can provide valuable information on the nuclear equation of state (EOS). Here, we investigate the extent to which electromagnetic observations of the associated kilonovae allow us to place constraints on the EOS. For this, we use state-of-the-art three-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations and detailed nucleosynthesis modeling to connect properties of observed light curves to properties of the accretion disk, and hence, the EOS. Using our general approach, we use multimessenger observations of GW170817/AT2017gfo to study the impact of various sources of uncertainty on inferences of the EOS. We constrain the radius of a 1.4M neutron star to lie within 10.30 ≤ R1.4 ≤ 13.0 km and the maximum mass to be MTOV ≤ 3.06M.

Associated Fellows