High-Density Sound Speed and Post-Merger Dynamics

Abstract

The density dependence of the speed of sound in cold neutron star matter remains poorly constrained and is central to determining the high-density equation of state (EOS). While binary neutron star (BNS) merger simulations increasingly incorporate detailed microphysics, the direct impact of the sound-speed in the neutron star core on observable signatures has not been systematically explored. We address this by introducing a simplified parametrization that suppresses microphysics while allowing controlled variation of the sound speed at supranuclear densities through its derivative with respect to the baryon chemical potential. Using the WhiskyTHC code, we perform a suite of fully relativistic BNS merger simulations and identify correlations between the sound-speed slope parameter and key merger outcomes, including remnant properties and post-merger GW frequencies. These results demonstrate that multimessenger observables are sensitive to the behavior of matter at the highest densities reached in neutron star cores. We further analyze gravitational-wave signals from the CoRe database of binary neutron star merger simulations employing more realistic equations of state. Our analysis reveals approximately EOS-independent relations between the derivative of the sound speed and the peak post-merger gravitational-wave frequency. Although these relations cannot be considered truly quasi-universal, they nonetheless indicate that post-merger gravitational waves retain measurable information about the EOS at he highest densities. At the same time, the remaining EOS dependence highlights the difficulty of isolating the underlying high-density physics and motivates the development of targeted parameterized frameworks for interpreting future multimessenger observations.