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Information about the last stages of a binary neutron star inspiral and the final merger can be extracted from quasiequilibrium configurations and dynamical evolutions. In this article, we construct quasiequilibrium configurations for different spins, eccentricities, mass ratios, compactnesses, and equations of state. For this purpose we employ the sgrid code, which allows us to construct such data in previously inaccessible regions of the parameter space. In particular, we consider spinning neutron stars in isolation and in binary systems; we incorporate new methods to produce highly eccentric and eccentricity-reduced data; we present the possibility of computing data for significantly unequal-mass binaries with mass ratios q≃2; and we create equal-mass binaries with individual compactness up to C ≃ 0.23. As a proof of principle, we explore the dynamical evolution of three new configurations. First, we simulate a q=2.06 mass ratio which is the highest mass ratio for a binary neutron star evolved in numerical relativity to date. We find that mass transfer from the companion star sets in a few revolutions before merger and a rest mass of ~10-2M⊙ is transferred between the two stars. This amount of mass accretion corresponds to ~1051 ergs of accretion energy. This configuration also ejects a large amount of material during merger (~7.6?10-2M⊙), imparting a substantial kick to the remnant neutron star. Second, we simulate the first merger of a precessing binary neutron star. We present the dominant modes of the gravitational waves for the precessing simulation, where a clear imprint of the precession is visible in the (2,1) mode. Finally, we quantify the effect of an eccentricity-reduction procedure on the gravitational waveform. The procedure improves the waveform quality and should be employed in future precision studies. However, one also needs to reduce other errors in the waveforms, notably truncation errors, in order for the improvement due to eccentricity reduction to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study equal- and unequal-mass neutron star mergers by means of new numerical relativity simulations in which the general relativistic hydrodynamics solver employs an algorithm that guarantees mass conservation across the refinement levels of the computational mesh. We consider eight binary configurations with total mass M = 2.7M⊙, mass ratios q = 1 and q = 1.16, four different equations of state (EOSs) and one configuration with a stiff EOS, M = 2.5M⊙ and q = 1.5, which is one of the largest mass ratios simulated in numerical relativity to date. We focus on the postmerger dynamics and study the merger remnant, the dynamical ejecta, and the postmerger gravitational wave spectrum. Although most of the merger remnants are a hypermassive neutron star collapsing to a black hole + disk system on dynamical time scales, stiff EOSs can eventually produce a stable massive neutron star. During the merger process and on very short time scales, about ~10-3-10-2M⊙ of material become unbound with kinetic energies ~1050 erg. Ejecta are mostly emitted around the orbital plane and favored by large mass ratios and softer EOS. The postmerger wave spectrum is mainly characterized by the nonaxisymmetric oscillations of the remnant neutron star. The stiff EOS configuration consisting of a 1.5M⊙ and a l.OM⊙ neutron star, simulated here for the first time, shows a rather peculiar dynamics. During merger the companion star is very deformed; about ~0.03M⊙ of the rest mass becomes unbound from the tidal tail due to the torque generated by the two-core inner structure. The merger remnant is a stable neutron star surrounded by a massive accretion disk of rest mass ~0.3M⊙. This and similar configurations might be particularly interesting for electromagnetic counterparts. Comparing results obtained with and without the conservative mesh refinement algorithm, we find that postmerger simulations can be affected by systematic errors if mass conservation is not enforced in the mesh refinement strategy. However, mass conservation also depends on grid details and on the artificial atmosphere setup; the latter are particularly significant in the computation of the dynamical ejecta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reexamine the gravitational collapse of rotating neutron stars to black holes by new 3 + 1 numerical relativity simulations employing the Z4c formulation of Einstein equations, the moving puncture gauge conditions, and a conservative mesh refinement scheme for the general relativistic hydrodynamics. The end state of the collapse is compared to the vacuum spacetime resulting from the evolution of spinning puncture initial data. Using a local analysis for the metric fields, we demonstrate that the two spacetimes actually agree. Gravitational waveforms are analyzed in some detail. We connect the emission of radiation to the collapse dynamics using simplified spacetime diagrams, and discuss the similarity of the wavefonn structure with the one of black hole perturbation theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulations of binary neutron stars have seen great advances in terms of physical detail and numerical quality. However, the spin of the neutron stars, one of the simplest global parameters of binaries, remains mostly unstudied. We present the first fully nonlinear general relativistic dynamical evolutions of the last three orbits for constraint-satisfying initial data of spinning neutron star binaries, with astrophysically realistic spins aligned and antialigned to the orbital angular momentum. The initial data are computed with the constant rotational velocity approach. The dynamics of the systems is analyzed in terms of gauge-invariant binding energy vs orbital angular momentum curves. By comparing to a binary black hole configuration, we can estimate the different tidal and spin contributions to the binding energy for the first time. First results on the gravitational waveforms are presented. The phase evolution during the orbital motion is significantly affected by spin-orbit interactions, leading to delayed or early mergers. Furthermore, a frequency shift in the main emission mode of the hypermassive neutron star is observed. Our results suggest that a detailed modeling of merger waveforms requires the inclusion of spin, even for the moderate magnitudes observed in binary neutron star systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The puncture method specifies black hole data on a hypersurface with the aid of a conformal rescaling of the metric that exhibits a coordinate singularity at the puncture point. When constructing puncture initial data by solving the Hamiltonian constraint for the conformal factor, the coordinate singularity requires special attention. The standard way to treat the pole singularity occurring in wormhole puncture data is not generally applicable to trumpet puncture data. We investigate a new approach based on inverse powers of the conformal factor and present numerical examples for single punctures of the wormhole and 1+log-trumpet type. Additionally, we describe a method to solve the Hamiltonian constraint for two 1+log trumpets for a given extrinsic curvature with a nonvanishing trace. We investigate properties of this constructed initial data during binary black hole evolutions and find that the initial gauge dynamics is reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first detections of black hole-neutron star mergers (GW200105 and GW200115) by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra Collaboration mark a significant scientific breakthrough. The physical interpretation of pre- and postmerger signals requires careful cross-examination between observational and theoretical modelling results. Here we present the first set of black hole-neutron star simulations that were obtained with the numerical-relativity code BAM. Our initial data are constructed using the public LORENE spectral library, which employs an excision of the black hole interior. BAM, in contrast, uses the moving-puncture gauge for the evolution. Therefore, we need to "stuff" the black hole interior with smooth initial data to evolve the binary system in time. This procedure introduces constraint violations such that the constraint damping properties of the evolution system are essential to increase the accuracy of the simulation and in particular to reduce spurious center-of-mass drifts. Within BAM we evolve the Z4c equations and we compare our gravitational-wave results with those of the SXS collaboration and results obtained with the sacra code. While we find generally good agreement with the reference solutions and phase differences ≲ 0.5 rad at the moment of merger, the absence of a clean convergence order in our simulations does not allow for a proper error quantification. We finally present a set of different initial conditions to explore how the merger of black hole neutron star systems depends on the involved masses, spins, and equations of state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merging neutron stars are expected to produce hot, metastable remnants in rapid differential rotation, which subsequently cool and evolve into rigidly rotating neutron stars or collapse to black holes. Studying this metastable phase and its further evolution is essential for the prediction and interpretation of the electromagnetic, neutrino, and gravitational signals from such a merger. In this work, we model binary neutron star merger remnants and propose new rotation and thermal laws that describe postmerger remnants. Our framework is capable to reproduce quasiequilibrium configurations for generic equations of state, rotation and temperature profiles, including nonbarotropic ones. We demonstrate that our results are in agreement with numerical relativity simulations concerning bulk remnant properties like the mass, angular momentum, and the formation of a massive accretion disk. Because of the low computational cost for our axisymmetric code compared to full 3 + 1-dimensional simulations, we can perform an extensive exploration of the binary neutron star remnant parameter space studying several hundred thousand configurations for different equations of state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the discovery of gravitational waves from binary black holes (BBHs) and binary neutron stars (BNSs) with the LIGO and Virgo detectors, neutron-star black holes (NSBHs) are the natural next class of binary systems to be observed. In this work, we develop a waveform model for aligned-spin NSBHs combining a BBH baseline waveform (available in the effective-one-body approach) with a phenomenological description of tidal effects (extracted from numerical-relativity simulations) and correcting the amplitude during the late inspiral, merger and ringdown to account for the NS tidal disruption. In particular, we calibrate the amplitude corrections using NSBH waveforms obtained with the numerical-relativity spectral Einstein code (spec) and the sacra code. The model was calibrated using simulations with NS masses in the range 1.2-1.4 M⊙, tidal deformabilities up to 4200 (for a 1.2 M⊙ NS), and dimensionless BH spin magnitude up to 0.9. Based on the simulations used and on checking that sensible waveforms are produced, we recommend our model to be employed with a NS mass in the range 1-3 M⊙, tidal deformability 0-5000, and (dimensionless) BH spin magnitude up to 0.9. We also validate our model against two new, highly accurate NSBH waveforms with BH spin 0.9 and mass ratios 3 and 4, characterized by tidal disruption, produced with SpEC, and find very good agreement. Furthermore, we compute the unfaithfulness between waveforms from NSBH, BBH, and BNS systems, finding that it will be challenging for the Advanced LIGO-Virgo detector network at design sensitivity to distinguish different source classes. We perform a Bayesian parameter-estimation analysis on a synthetic numerical-relativity signal in zero noise to study parameter biases. Finally, we reanalyze GW170817, with the hypothesis that it is a NSBH. We do not find evidence to distinguish the BNS and NSBH hypotheses; however, the posterior for the mass ratio is shifted to less equal masses under the NSBH hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We continue our study of the binary neutron star parameter space by investigating the effect of the spin orientation on the dynamics, gravitational wave emission, and mass ejection during the binary neutron star coalescence. We simulate seven different configurations using multiple resolutions to allow a reasonable error assessment. Due to the particular choice of the setups, five configurations show precession effects, from which two show a precession ("wobbling") of the orbital plane, while three show a "bobbing" motion; i.e., the orbital angular momentum does not precess, while the orbital plane moves along the orbital angular momentum axis. Considering the ejection of mass, we find that precessing systems can have an anisotropic mass ejection, which could lead to a final remnant kick of ~40 km/s for the studied systems. Furthermore, for the chosen configurations, antialigned spins lead to larger mass ejecta than aligned spins, so that brighter electromagnetic counterparts could be expected for these configurations. Finally, we compare our simulations with the precessing, tidal waveform approximant imrphenompv2_nrtidalv2 and find good agreement between the approximant and our numerical relativity waveforms with phase differences below 1.2 rad accumulated over the last ~16 gravitational wave cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quasiuniversal relations between the tidal deformability and the quadrupole moment of neutron stars are predicted by theoretical computations, but have not been measured experimentally. We simulate 120 binary neutron star sources and find that Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo at design sensitivity could find possible deviations from predicted relations if the neutron stars are highly spinning. A network of envisaged third generation detectors will even allow extracting such relations, providing new tests of general relativity and nuclear physics predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutron stars provide an excellent laboratory for physics under the most extreme conditions. Up to now, models of axisymmetric, stationary, differentially rotating neutron stars were constructed under the strong assumption of barotropicity, where a one-to-one relation between all thermodynamic quantities exists. This implies that the specific angular momentum of a matter element depends only on its angular velocity. The physical conditions in the early stages of neutron stars, however, are determined by their violent birth processes, typically a supernova or in some cases the merger of two neutron stars, and detailed numerical models show that the resulting stars are by no means barotropic. Here, we construct models for stationary, differentially rotating, nonbarotropic neutron stars, where the equation of state and the specific angular momentum depend on more than one independent variable. We show that the potential formulation of the relativistic Euler equation can be extended to the nonbarotropic case, which, to the best of our knowledge, is a new result even for the Newtonian case. We implement the new method into the XNS code and construct equilibrium configurations for nonbarotropic equations of state. We scrutinize the resulting configurations by evolving them dynamically with the numerical relativity code BAM, thereby demonstrating that the new method indeed produces stationary, differentially rotating, nonbarotropic neutron star configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gravitational wave astronomy has established its role in measuring the equation of state governing cold supranuclear matter. To date and in the near future, gravitational wave measurements from neutron star binaries are likely to be restricted to the inspiral. However, future upgrades and the next generation of gravitational wave detectors will enable us to detect the gravitational wave signatures emitted after the merger of two stars, at times when densities beyond those in single neutron stars are reached. Therefore, the postmerger gravitational wave signal enables studies of supranuclear matter at its extreme limit. To support this line of research, we present new and updated phenomenological relations between the binary properties and characteristic features of the postmerger evolution. Most notably, we derive an updated relation connecting the mass-weighted tidal deformability and the maximum neutron star mass to the dominant emission frequency of the postmerger spectrum. With the help of a configuration-independent Bayesian analysis using simplified Lorentzian model functions, we find that the main emission frequency of the postmerger remnant, for signal-to-noise ratios of 8 and above, can be extracted within a 1-sigma uncertainty of about 100 Hz for Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo's design sensitivities. In some cases, even a postmerger signal-to-noise ratio of 4 can be sufficient to determine the main emission frequency. This will enable us to measure binary and equation-of-state properties from the postmerger, to perform a consistency check between different parts of the binary neutron star coalescence, and to put our physical interpretation of neutron star mergers to the test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate and fast gravitational waveform (GW) models are essential to extract information about the properties of compact binary systems that generate GWs. Building on previous work, we present an extension of the NRTidal model for binary neutron star (BNS) waveforms. The upgrades are (i) a new closed-form expression for the tidal contribution to the GW phase which includes further analytical knowledge and is calibrated to more accurate numerical relativity data than previously available; (ii) a tidal correction to the GW amplitude; and (iii) an extension of the spin-sector incorporating equation-of-state-dependent finite size effects at quadrupolar and octupolar order; these appear in the spin-spin tail terms and cubic-in-spin terms, both at 3.5 PN. We add the new description to the precessing binary black hole waveform model IMRPhenomPv2 to obtain a frequency-domain precessing binary neutron star model. In addition, we extend the SEOBNRv4_ROM and IMRPhenomD aligned-spin binary black hole waveform models with the improved tidal phase corrections. Focusing on the new IMRPhenomPv2_NRTidalv2 approximant, we test the model by comparing with numerical relativity waveforms as well as hybrid waveforms combining tidal effective-one-body and numerical relativity data. We also check consistency against a tidal effective-one-body model across large regions of the BNS parameter space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of the compact binary coalescence in both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation marks a breakthrough in the field of multimessenger astronomy and has improved our knowledge in a number of research areas. However, an open question is the exact origin of the observables and if one can confirm reliably that GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterparts resulted from a binary neutron star merger. To answer the question if the observation of GW170817, GRB170817A, and AT2017gfo could be explained by the merger of a neutron star with a black hole, we perform a joint multimessenger analysis of the gravitational waves, the short gamma-ray burst, and the kilonova. Assuming a black hole-neutron star system, we derive multimessenger constraints for the tidal deformability of the neutron star of Λ>425 and for the mass ratio of q<2.03 at 90% confidence, with peaks in the likelihood near Λ=830 and q=1.0. Overall, we find that a black hole-neutron star merger could explain the observed signatures; however, our analysis shows that a binary neutron star origin of GW170817 seems more plausible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracting the properties of a binary system emitting gravitational waves relies on models describing the last stages of the compact binary coalescence. In this article, we study potential biases inherent to current tidal waveform approximants for spinning and precessing systems. We perform a Bayesian study to estimate the intrinsic parameters of highly spinning binary neutron star systems. Our analysis shows that one has to include the quadrupolar deformation of the neutron stars due to their rotation once dimensionless spins above χ~0.20 are reached; otherwise, the extracted intrinsic parameters are systematically biased. We find that at the design sensitivity of Advanced LIGO and Virgo, it seems unlikely that for GW170817-like sources a clear imprint of precession will be visible in the analysis of the signal employing current waveform models. However, precession effects might be detectable for unequal-mass configurations with spins larger than χ>0.2. We finalize our study by investigating the possible benefits of a combined gravitational-wave and electromagnetic detection. The presence of electromagnetic counterparts helps in reducing the dimensionality of the parameter space with constraints on the sky location, source distance, and inclination. However, we note that although a small improvement in the estimation of the tidal deformability parameter is seen in these cases, changes in the intrinsic parameters are overall very small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combined observation of gravitational and electromagnetic waves from the coalescence of two neutron stars marks the beginning of multimessenger astronomy with gravitational waves (GWs). The development of accurate gravitational waveform models is a crucial prerequisite to extract information about the properties of the binary system that generated a detected GW signal. In binary neutron star systems (BNS), tidal effects also need to be incorporated in the modeling for an accurate waveform representation. Building on previous work [Phys. Rev. D 96, 121501 (2017)], we explore the performance of inspiral-merger waveform models that are obtained by adding a numerical relativity (NR) based approximant for the tidal part of the phasing (NRTidal) to existing models for nonprecessing and precessing binary black hole systems, as implemented in the LSC Algorithm Library Suite. The resulting BNS waveforms are compared and contrasted to a set of target waveforms which we obtain by hybridizing NR waveforms (covering the last ∼10 orbits up to the merger and extending through the postmerger phase) with inspiral waveforms calculated from 30 Hz obtained with a state-of-the-art effective-one-body waveform model. While due to the construction procedure of the target waveforms, there is no error budget available over the full frequency range accessible by advanced GW detectors, the waveform set presents only an approximation of the real signal. We probe that the combination of the self-spin terms and of the NRTidal description is necessary to obtain minimal mismatches (≲0.01) and phase differences (≲1 rad) with respect to the target waveforms. We also discuss possible improvements and drawbacks of the NRTidal approximant in its current form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gravitational wave (GW) astronomy has consolidated its role as a new observational window to reveal the properties of compact binaries in the Universe. In particular, the discovery of the first binary neutron star coalescence, GW170817, led to a number of scientific breakthroughs as the possibility to place constraints on the equation of state of cold matter at supranuclear densities. These constraints and all scientific results based on them require accurate models describing the GW signal to extract the source properties from the measured signal. In this article, we study potential systematic biases during the extraction of parameters from non-spinning sources using different descriptions for both, the point-particle dynamics and tidal effects. We find that for the considered cases the mass and spin recovery show almost no systematic bias with respect to the chosen waveform model. However, the extracted tidal effects can be strongly biased, where we find generally that Post-Newtonian approximants predict neutron stars with larger deformability and radii than numerical relativity tuned models. Noteworthy, an increase in the post-Newtonian order in the tidal phasing does not lead to a monotonic change in the estimated properties. We find that for a signal with strength similar to GW170817, but observed with design sensitivity with the network of the two LIGO detectors and the Virgo detector, the estimated tidal parameters can differ by more than a factor of two depending on the employed tidal description of the waveform approximant. This shows the current need for the development of better waveform models to extract reliably the source properties from upcoming GW detections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we study the dynamics of spinning binary black hole systems in the strong field regime. For this purpose we extract from numerical relativity simulations the binding energy, specific orbital angular momentum, and gauge-invariant frequency. The goal of our work is threefold: First, we extract the individual spin contributions to the binding energy, in particular the spin-orbit, spin-spin, and cubic-in-spin terms. Second, we compare our results with predictions from waveform models and find that while post-Newtonian approximants are not capable of representing the dynamics during the last few orbits before merger, there is good agreement between our data and effective-one-body approximants as well as the numerical relativity surrogate models. Finally, we present phenomenological representations for the binding energy for nonspinning systems with mass ratios up to q=10 and for the spin-orbit interaction for mass ratios up to q=8 obtaining accuracies of ≲0.1% and ≲6%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As current gravitational wave (GW) detectors increase in sensitivity, and particularly as new instruments are being planned, there is the possibility that ground-based GW detectors will observe GWs from highly eccentric neutron star binaries. We present the first detailed study of highly eccentric BNS systems with full (3+1)D numerical relativity simulations using consistent initial conditions, i.e., setups which are in agreement with the Einstein equations and with the equations of general relativistic hydrodynamics in equilibrium. Overall, our simulations cover two different equations of state (EOSs), two different spin configurations, and three to four different initial eccentricities for each pairing of EOS and spin. We extract from the simulated waveforms the frequency of the f-mode oscillations induced during close encounters before the merger of the two stars. The extracted frequency is in good agreement with f-mode oscillations of individual stars for the irrotational cases, which allows an independent measure of the supranuclear equation of state not accessible for binaries on quasicircular orbits. The energy stored in these f-mode oscillations can be as large as 10-3  M⊙∼1051  erg, even with a soft EOS. In order to estimate the stored energy, we also examine the effects of mode mixing due to the stars' offset from the origin on the f-mode contribution to the GW signal. While in general (eccentric) neutron star mergers produce bright electromagnetic counterparts, we find that for the considered cases with fixed initial separation the luminosity decreases when the eccentricity becomes too large, due to a decrease of the ejecta mass. Finally, the use of consistent initial configurations also allows us to produce high-quality waveforms for different eccentricities which can be used as a test bed for waveform model development of highly eccentric binary neutron star systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axions are a potential dark matter candidate, which may condense and form self-gravitating compact objects, called axion stars (ASs). In this work, we study for the first time head-on collisions of relativistic ASs with black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs). In the case of BH-AS mergers we find that, in general, the largest scalar clouds are produced by mergers of low compactness ASs and spinning BHs. Although in most of the cases which we study the majority of the mass is absorbed by the BH within a short time after the merger, in favorable cases the remaining cloud surrounding the final BH remnant can be as large as 30% of the initial axion star mass, with a bosonic cloud mass of O(10-1)MBH and peak energy density comparable to that obtained in a superradiant buildup. This provides a dynamical mechanism for the formation of long lived scalar hair, which could lead to observable signals in cases where the axion interacts with baryonic matter around the BH, or where it forms the seed of a future superradiant buildup in highly spinning cases. Considering NS-AS collisions we find two possible final states: (i) a BH surrounded by a (small) scalar cloud, or (ii) a stable NS enveloped in an axion cloud of roughly the same mass as the initial AS. While for low mass ASs the NS is only mildly perturbed by the collision, a larger mass AS gives rise to a massive ejection of baryonic mass from the system, purely due to gravitational effects. Therefore, even in the absence of a direct axion coupling to baryonic matter, NS-AS collisions could give rise to electromagnetic observables in addition to their gravitational wave signatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first set of numerical relativity simulations of binary neutron mergers that include spin precession effects and are evolved with multiple resolutions. Our simulations employ consistent initial data in general relativity with different spin configurations and dimensionless spin magnitudes ~0.1. They start at a gravitational-wave frequency of ~392 Hz and cover more than 1 precession period and about 15 orbits up to merger. We discuss the spin precession dynamics by analyzing coordinate trajectories, quasilocal spin measurements, and energetics, by comparing spin aligned, antialigned, and irrotational configurations. Gravitational waveforms from different spin configuration are compared by calculating the mismatch between pairs of waveforms in the late inspiral. We find that precession effects are not distinguishable from nonprecessing configurations with aligned spins for approximately face-on binaries, while the latter are distinguishable from nonspinning configurations. Spin precession effects are instead clearly visible for approximately edge-on binaries. For the parameters considered here, precession does not significantly affect the characteristic postmerger gravitational-wave frequencies nor the mass ejection. Our results pave the way for the modeling of spin precession effects in the gravitational waveform from binary neutron star events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct closed-form gravitational waveforms (GWs) with tidal effects for the coalescence of binary neutron stars. The method relies on a new set of eccentricity-reduced and high-resolution numerical relativity (NR) simulations and is composed of three steps. First, tidal contributions to the GW phase are extracted from the time-domain NR data. Second, those contributions are employed to fix high-order coefficients in an effective and resummed post-Newtonian expression. Third, frequency-domain tidal approximants are built using the stationary phase approximation. Our tidal approximants are valid from the low frequencies to the strong-field regime. They can be analytically added to any binary black hole GW model to obtain a binary neutron star waveform, either in the time or in the frequency domain. This work provides simple, flexible, and accurate models ready to be used in both searches and parameter estimation of binary neutron star events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a detailed comparison between tidal effective-one-body (EOB) models and new state-of-the-art numerical relativity simulations for nonspinning binary neutron star systems. This comparison is the most extensive one to date, covering a wide range in the parameter space and encompassing the energetics of the binary, the periastron advance, the time and frequency evolution of the gravitational wave phase for the dominant mode, and several subdominant modes. We consider different EOB models with tidal effects that have been proposed, including the model with dynamical tides of Hinderer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 181101 (2016)] and the gravitational self-force (GSF) inspired tidal EOB model of Bernuzzi et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 161103 (2015)]. The EOB model with dynamical tides leads to the best representation of the systems considered here; however, the differences to the GSF-inspired model are small. A common feature is that for systems where matter effects are large, i.e., stiff equations of state or small total masses, all EOB models underestimate the tidal effects and differences to the results from numerical relativity simulations become noticeable near the merger. We analyze this regime to diagnose the shortcomings of the models in the late inspiral, where the two neutron stars are no longer isolated bodies moving in vacuum. Our work will serve to guide further advances in modeling these systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present new (3+1)-dimensional numerical relativity simulations of the binary neutron star (BNS) mergers that take into account the NS spins. We consider different spin configurations, aligned or antialigned to the orbital angular momentum, for equal- and unequal-mass BNSs and for two equations of state. All the simulations employ quasiequilibrium circular initial data in the constant rotational velocity approach, i.e. they are consistent with the Einstein equations and in hydrodynamical equilibrium. We study the NS rotation effect on the energetics, the gravitational waves (GWs) and on the possible electromagnetic (EM) emission associated to dynamical mass ejecta. For dimensionless spin magnitudes of χ ~ 0.1 we find that both spin-orbit interactions and spin-induced quadrupole deformations affect the late-inspiral merger dynamics. The latter is, however, dominated by finite-size effects. Spin (tidal) effects contribute to GW phase differences up to ~ 5 (20) radians accumulated during the last eight orbits to merger. Similarly, after merger the collapse time of the remnant and the GW spectrogram are affected by the NSs rotation. Spin effects in dynamical ejecta are clearly observed in unequal-mass systems in which mass ejection originates from the tidal tail of the companion. Consequently kilonovae and other EM counterparts are affected by spins. We find that spin aligned to the orbital angular momentum leads to brighter EM counterparts than antialigned spin with luminosities up to a factor of 2 higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present new (3+1)D numerical relativity simulations of the binary neutron star (BNS) merger and postmerger phase. We focus on a previously inaccessible region of the binary parameter space spanning the binary's mass ratio q∼1.00-1.75 for different total masses and equations of state, and up to q∼2 for a stiff BNS system. We study the mass ratio effect on the gravitational waves (GWs) and on the possible electromagnetic (EM) emission associated with dynamical mass ejecta. We compute waveforms, spectra, and spectrograms of the GW strain including all the multipoles up to l=4. The mass ratio has a specific imprint on the GW multipoles in the late-inspiral-merger signal, and it affects qualitatively the spectra of the merger remnant. The multipole effect is also studied by considering the dependency of the GW spectrograms on the source's sky location. Unequal mass BNSs produce more ejecta than equal mass systems with ejecta masses and kinetic energies depending almost linearly on q. We estimate luminosity peaks and light curves of macronova events associated with the mergers using a simple approach. For q∼2 the luminosity peak is delayed for several days and can be up to 4 times larger than for the q=1 cases. The macronova emission associated with the q∼2 BNS is more persistent in time and could be observed for weeks instead of a few days (q=1) in the near infrared. Finally, we estimate the flux of possible radio flares produced by the interaction of relativistic outflows with the surrounding medium. Also in this case a large q can significantly enhance the emission and delay the peak luminosity. Overall, our results indicate that the BNS merger with a large mass ratio has EM signatures distinct from the equal mass case and more similar to black hole-neutron star binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods coupled to weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) algorithms allow high order convergence for smooth problems and for the simulation of discontinuities and shocks. In this work, we investigate WENO-DG algorithms in the context of numerical general relativity, in particular for general relativistic hydrodynamics. We implement the standard WENO method at different orders, a compact (simple) WENO scheme, as well as an alternative subcell evolution algorithm. To evaluate the performance of the different numerical schemes, we study nonrelativistic, special relativistic, and general relativistic test beds. We present the first three-dimensional simulations of general relativistic hydrodynamics, albeit for a fixed spacetime background, within the framework of WENO-DG methods. The most important test bed is a single Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff star in three dimensions, showing that long term stable simulations of single isolated neutron stars can be obtained with WENO-DG methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical modeling of gravitational waveforms from binary neutron star mergers requires precise numerical relativity simulations. Assessing convergence of the numerical data and building the error budget is currently challenging due to the low accuracy of general-relativistic hydrodynamics schemes and to the grid resolutions that can be employed in (3+1)-dimensional simulations. In this work, we explore the use of high-order weighted-essentially-nonoscillatory (WENO) schemes in neutron star merger simulations and investigate the accuracy of the waveforms obtained with such methods. We find that high-order WENO schemes can be robustly employed for simulating the inspiral-merger phase and they significantly improve the assessment of the waveform's error budget with respect to finite-volume methods. High-order WENO schemes can be thus efficiently used for high-quality waveform production, and in future large-scale investigations of the binary parameter space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]