Nuclear physics constraints from binary neutron star mergers in the Einstein Telescope era
Francesco Iacovelli, Michele Mancarella, C. Mondal, Anna Puecher, Tim Dietrich, F. Gulminelli, Michele Maggiore, Micaela Oertel
Abstract
The next generation of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, present a unique opportunity to put constraints on dense matter, among many other groundbreaking scientific goals. In a recent study, the science case of the Einstein Telescope was further strengthened, studying in particular the performances of different detector designs. In this paper we present a more detailed study of the nuclear physics section of that work. In particular, focusing on two different detector configurations (the single-site triangular-shaped design and a design consisting of two widely separated ``L-shaped'' interferometers), we study the detection prospects of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers, and how they can reshape our understanding of the underlying equation of state (EOS) of dense matter. We employ several state-of-the-art EOS models and state-of-the-art synthetic BNS merger catalogs, and we make use of the Fisher information formalism to quantify statistical errors on the astrophysical parameters describing individual BNS events. To check the reliability of the Fisher information formalism method, we further perform a full parameter estimation for a few simulated events. Based on the uncertainties on the tidal deformabilities associated to these events, we outline a mechanism to extract the underlying injected EOS using a recently developed metamodeling approach within a Bayesian framework. Our results suggest that with $\ensuremath{\gtrsim}500$ events with signal-to-noise ratio greater than 12, we will be able to pin down very precisely the underlying EOS governing the neutron star matter.