Visualizing Constraints on the Neutron Star Equation of State from Gravitational-Wave Observations

Constraining the neutron star (NS) equation of state (EOS) is an ongoing project in the gravitational-wave scientific community. An EOS is a relationship between state variables, such as pressure and density, for a material. LIGO and Virgo have recently detected the gravitational-wave signal GW170817, which came from the merger of a binary neutron star system, or a system where two neutron stars are locked in orbit and eventually merge. ~LIGO and Virgo scientists used a fully-Bayesian software package called LALInference to extract the system's source parameters from the signal. ~One of these parameters quantifies the tidal deformability of the two-star system, which is directly related to the NS EOS. ~However, by modeling and~parameterizing~the NS EOS, this same software package can be used to more directly measure the EOS. ~In collaboration with Matthew Carney, we have implemented a new method for directly measuring the NS EOS into LALInference and have developed sophisticated visualization tools for turning these outputs into publication-worthy plots. These plots include relationships between the mass and radius of neutron stars and the pressure and density of neutron stars.