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Postmerger Gravitational-Wave Signatures of Phase Transitions in Binary Mergers

4 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

4 Pith papers citing it
abstract

With the first detection of gravitational waves from a binary system of neutron stars, GW170817, a new window was opened to study the properties of matter at and above nuclear-saturation density. Reaching densities a few times that of nuclear matter and temperatures up to $100\,\rm{MeV}$, such mergers also represent potential sites for a phase transition (PT) from confined hadronic matter to deconfined quark matter. While the lack of a postmerger signal in GW170817 has prevented us from assessing experimentally this scenario, two theoretical studies have explored the postmerger gravitational-wave signatures of PTs in mergers of binary systems of neutron stars. We here extend and complete the picture by presenting a novel signature of the occurrence of a PT. More specifically, using fully general-relativistic hydrodynamic simulations and employing a suitably constructed equation of state that includes a PT, we present the occurrence of a "delayed PT", i.e. a PT that develops only some time after the merger and produces a metastable object with a quark-matter core, i.e. a hypermassive hybrid star. Because in this scenario, the postmerger signal exhibits two distinct fundamental gravitational-wave frequencies -- before and after the PT -- the associated signature promises to be the strongest and cleanest among those considered so far, and one of the best signatures of the production of quark matter in the present Universe.

years

2026 3 2023 1

representative citing papers

Dynamical response of twin stars to perturbations

gr-qc · 2026-02-02 · unverdicted · novelty 7.0

Twin-star configurations on the hadronic branch are dynamically favored over hybrid twins because they tolerate stronger perturbations before migrating, with binding energies serving as a proxy for this preference.

Hybrid Stars with Post-Merger Rotation Profiles

gr-qc · 2026-06-16 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Differential rotation in hybrid stars with deconfinement phase transition allows quasi-toroidal configurations with quark matter rings and leads to degeneracies in rotational profiles at mass-radius curve intersections.

Science with the Einstein Telescope: a comparison of different designs

gr-qc · 2023-03-28 · unverdicted · novelty 3.0

The paper evaluates how triangular versus two-L-shaped geometries, arm lengths, and presence of low-frequency instruments affect the science reach of the Einstein Telescope for compact binaries, multi-messenger events, and stochastic backgrounds.

citing papers explorer

Showing 4 of 4 citing papers.

  • Subsolar-mass binary mergers of strange stars and neutron stars: gravitational waves and ejecta astro-ph.HE · 2026-07-08 · conditional · none · ref 85 · internal anchor

    Subsolar strange star mergers produce a lower post-merger-to-cutoff GW frequency ratio than neutron star mergers, cleanly separating the two classes across equations of state and mass ratios.

  • Dynamical response of twin stars to perturbations gr-qc · 2026-02-02 · unverdicted · none · ref 11

    Twin-star configurations on the hadronic branch are dynamically favored over hybrid twins because they tolerate stronger perturbations before migrating, with binding energies serving as a proxy for this preference.

  • Hybrid Stars with Post-Merger Rotation Profiles gr-qc · 2026-06-16 · unverdicted · none · ref 36

    Differential rotation in hybrid stars with deconfinement phase transition allows quasi-toroidal configurations with quark matter rings and leads to degeneracies in rotational profiles at mass-radius curve intersections.

  • Science with the Einstein Telescope: a comparison of different designs gr-qc · 2023-03-28 · unverdicted · none · ref 215

    The paper evaluates how triangular versus two-L-shaped geometries, arm lengths, and presence of low-frequency instruments affect the science reach of the Einstein Telescope for compact binaries, multi-messenger events, and stochastic backgrounds.