Parameter Estimation of Binary Neutron Stars using an Effective One Body Model including Tidal Interaction

Ground gravitational wave detectors, built to detect perturbations in spacetime, can pick up signals produced by inspiraling binary neutron stars, the remnants of the core collapse of massive stars. A new EOB model (Bernuzzi et al 2015) simulates the inspiral and merger of binary neutron star systems, including how they are deformed due to tides.We used a Bayesian parameter estimation algorithm to infer how well a plausible gravitational wave detection would allow us to constrain this tidal deformability. We then compared our results to prior investigations (Wade et al 2014) which employed a post-Newtonian-based approximation for the inspiral.