Inaya Khwaja

Prospects for Studying Neutron Stars via their Mergers

Started Nov. 22, 2023

Abstract or project description

The phenomenon of neutron stars (NSs) has been studied for decades, yet astronomers and astrophysicists seek to advance their knowledge of the nature of NSs. One aspect of these special stars displays the potential to reveal important information: neutron star mergers. This situation occurs when two neutron stars orbit each other and eventually collide. The result is the formation of a black hole, or a more massive neutron star (if the resultant's mass doesn't exceed the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff Limit). The detection of gravitational waves from this phenomena, through gravitational-wave detectors like LIGO and Virgo, was a revolutionary development in observational astrophysics and has opened up avenues for attaining more insight into characteristics of NSs such as the structure of a neutron star (its mass, size, and internal composition) and its possible evolutionary pathways and population statistics. Altogether, the information that astronomers can gain from NS mergers can combine astrophysics, gravitational wave astronomy, and even nuclear physics, into a greater understanding of neutron stars and their properties.