Abstract:
The observation of gravitational waves from an asymmetric binary opens the possibility for heavy neutron stars (potentially seen in GW190814), but these pose challenges to models of the neutron star equation of state. We construct heavy neutron stars by introducing non-trivial structure in the speed of sound sourced by changes in the degrees of freedom of dense QCD matter, which cannot be well recovered by spectral representations. Their moment of inertia, Love number and quadrupole moment are very small, so a tenfold increase in sensitivity may be needed to test this possibility with gravitational waves, which is feasible with third-generation detectors.
Zoom link will be available via announcement email, or by contacting: stroberg[at]uw.edu.