Effects of Phase Transitions in Neutron Stars

There are various theoretical motivations for expecting a phase transition in matter at extreme densities above supranuclear accompanied by hopes that gravitational wave observations may reveal the properties of such a transition. We consider a generic form of first order phase transition using a piecewise polytrope equation of state, and evolve both isolated neutron stars and neutron star binaries looking at dynamical effects. Of particular interest are effects that may be observable.