Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2020
Volume 65, Number 2
Saturday–Tuesday, April 18–21, 2020; Washington D.C.
Session T06: Nuclear Physics with Gravitational Wave ObservationsInvited Live
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Sponsoring Units: DGRAV DNP DAP Chair: Sanjay Reddy, University of Washington Room: Roosevelt 1 |
Monday, April 20, 2020 3:30PM - 4:06PM Live |
T06.00001: Neutron Star Mergers as Sites of Heavy Element Synthesis Invited Speaker: Brian Metzger Almost three years ago, the LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave observatories detected the first binary neutron star merger event (GW170817), a discovery followed by the most ambitious electromagnetic (EM) follow-up campaign ever conducted. Within 11 hours, a bright but rapidly fading thermal optical counterpart was discovered in the galaxy NGC 4993 at a distance of only 130 Million light years. The properties of the optical transient match remarkably well predictions for ``kilonova'' emission powered by the radioactive decay of heavy nuclei synthesized in the expanding merger ejecta by rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis (r-process). The rapid spectral evolution of the kilonova emission to near-infrared wavelengths demonstrates that a portion of the ejecta contains heavy lanthanide nuclei, while other features of the light curve and possible spectral features suggest the joint synthesis of lighter r-process elements. I will describe our understanding of the sources of neutron-rich ejecta in neutron star mergers and the sensitivity of their properties (and the resulting kilonova signal) to the lifetime of the neutron star remnant. I will describe how multi-messenger observations of GW170817 and future mergers constrain the astrophysical origin of the r-process and the properties of~neutron stars (particularly their uncertain radii and maximum mass, which are determined by the equation of state of nuclear matter). Time permitting, I will overview new results from LIGO's ongoing O3 run and preview the upcoming era of multi-messenger astronomy, once Advanced LIGO/Virgo reach design sensitivity and a neutron star merger is detected every few weeks. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 4:06PM - 4:42PM Live |
T06.00002: Compact object mergers and implications for nuclear physics Invited Speaker: Andreas Bauswein The very first detection of gravitational waves from a neutron star merger and of accompanying electromagnetic emission marks a breakthrough in astrophysics. We will provide an overview on neutron star mergers in general and the different implications of the first unambiguous detection of such an event for nuclear physics. Moreover, we will describe the future potential of observations of compact object mergers to inform about incompletely known aspects of nuclear physics. We will discuss in more detail possibilities to infer unknown properties of high-density matter and stellar parameters of neutron stars from future measurements. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 4:42PM - 5:18PM Live |
T06.00003: Measuring the neutron-star equation of state from multimessenger observations Invited Speaker: Collin Capano The first direct detection of a gravitational wave from a binary neutron star merger, GW170817, was also the first event to be observed both by gravitational-wave detectors and telescopes. These ``multimessenger'' observations provided a unique opportunity to constrain the equation of state of cold, dense nuclear matter, which exists in the cores of neutron stars. Recent observations of PSR J0030+0451 from NICER, and the detection of a second binary neutron star merger by LIGO/Virgo, GW190425, have provided additional independent constraints on the equation of state. I will review current measurements from these observations, highlight some of the challenges in extracting equation of state information from gravitational-wave data, and discuss prospects for future observations. [Preview Abstract] |
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