Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2310.20378

Self-consistent treatment of thermal effects in neutron-star post-mergers: observational implications for third-generation gravitational-wave detectors

Verónica Villa-Ortega·Ana Lorenzo-Medina·Juan Calderón Bustillo·Milton Ruiz·Davide Guerra·Pablo Cerdá-Duran·José A. Font
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We assess the impact of accurate, self-consistent modelling of thermal effects in neutron-star merger remnants in the context of third-generation gravitational-wave detectors. This is done through the usage, in Bayesian model selection experiments, of numerical-relativity simulations of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers modelled through: a) nuclear, finite-temperature (or ``tabulated'') equations of state (EoSs), and b) their simplifed piecewise (or ``hybrid'') representation. These cover four different EoSs, namely SLy4, DD2, HShen and LS220. Our analyses make direct use of the Newman-Penrose scalar $\psi_4$ outputted by numerical simulations. Considering a detector network formed by three Cosmic Explorers, we show that differences in the gravitational-wave emission predicted by the two models are detectable with a natural logarithmic Bayes Factor $\log{\cal{B}}\geq 5$ at average distances of $d_L \simeq 50$Mpc, reaching $d_L \simeq 100$Mpc for source inclinations $\iota \leq 0.8$, regardless of the EoS. This impact is most pronounced for the HShen EoS. For low inclinations, only the DD2 EoS prevents the detectability of such modelling differences at $d_L \simeq 150$Mpc. Our results suggest that the usage a self-consistent treatment of thermal effects is crucial for third-generation gravitational wave detectors.

Explore related subjects

gr-qcastro-ph.HE

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Verónica Villa-Ortega, Ana Lorenzo-Medina, Juan Calderón Bustillo, Milton Ruiz, Davide Guerra, Pablo Cerdá-Duran, José A. Font. 2023-10-31. Self-consistent treatment of thermal effects in neutron-star post-mergers: observational implications for third-generation gravitational-wave detectors. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.111.103030

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc↗