Kilonova emissions from neutron star merger remnants: implications for nuclear equation of state

K. Lund, R. Somasundaram, G. C. McLaughlin, J. Miller, M. Mumpower, I. Tews

Submitted submitted (2024)

Multi-messenger observation of binary neutron-star mergers can provide valuable information on the nuclear equation of state (EoS). Here, we investigate to which extent electromagnetic observations of the associated kilonovae allow us to place constraints on the EoS. For this, we use state-of-the-art three-dimensional general-relativistic magneto-hydrodynamics simulations and detailed nucleosynthesis modeling to connect properties of observed light curves to properties of the accretion disk, and hence, the EoS. Using our general approach, we use multi-messenger observations of GW170817/AT2017gfo to study the impact of various sources of uncertainty on inferences of the EoS. We constrain the radius of a 1.4M⊙ neutron star to lie within 10.19≤R1.4≤13.0~km and the maximum mass to be MTOV≤3.06M⊙.

LA-UR-24-24836