Matter Effects on LIGO/Virgo Searches for Gravitational Waves from Merging Neutron Stars

Abstract

Gravitational waves from merging neutron stars are expected to be observed in the next 5 years. We explore the potential impact of matter effects on gravitational waves from merging double neutron-star binaries. If neutron star binaries exist with chirp masses less than roughly 1 solar mass and typical neutron-star radii are larger than roughly 14 km, or if neutron-star radii are larger than 15-16 km for the chirp masses of galactic neutron-star binaries, then matter will have a significant impact on the effectiveness of a point-particle-based search at Advanced LIGO design sensitivity (roughly 5% additional loss of signals). In a configuration typical of LIGO's first observing run, extreme matter effects lead to up to 10% potential loss in the most extreme cases