Author: aup1075

In a recent work (arXiv:2310.06025) we explore avenues for the detectability of QCD phase transitions to deconfined quarks in mergers of neutron stars. In particular we show that employing the sensitivities of next-generation gravitational wave (GW) detectors, at postmerger signal to noise ratios (SNRs) as low as 10, we can detect phase transitions but only if they strongly violate the so-called quasi-universal relations by more than 1.6 σ. We also show that at the same SNR, we can reliably recover the postmerger signal and differentiate between GW models on the basis of shifts in their postmerger peak frequencies.

In a recent study, we investigated the phenomenon of QCD phase transitions to deconfined quark matter in the context of binary neutron star mergers. We computed gravitational wave signatures of such a phase transition and explored its thermodynamic consequences. We found that binaries with equations of state supporting a quark phase become more compact and are more susceptible to collapsing to a black hole. We also computed electromagnetic signatures of QCD phase transitions and observed that a merger of binaries producing a remnant with a quark core can be dimmer as compared to exclusively hadronic mergers at early times i.e. from a few days to a few weeks following the merger. On the contrary, at late times, on the order of several months to years, the quark mergers can start to become more luminous.