@article{PangDietrichTewsetal.2020,
  author    = {Pang, Peter Tsun Ho and Dietrich, Tim and Tews, Ingo and Van Den Broeck, Chris},
  title     = {Parameter estimation for strong phase transitions in supranuclear matter using gravitational-wave astronomy},
  series = {Physical review research},
  volume    = {2},
  journal   = {Physical review research},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {American Physical Society},
  address   = {College Park},
  issn      = {2643-1564},
  doi       = {10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.033514},
  pages     = {17},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {At supranuclear densities, explored in the core of neutron stars, a strong phase transition from hadronic matter to more exotic forms of matter might be present. To test this hypothesis, binary neutron-star mergers offer a unique possibility to probe matter at densities that we cannot create in any existing terrestrial experiment. In this work, we show that, if present, strong phase transitions can have a measurable imprint on the binary neutron-star coalescence and the emitted gravitational-wave signal. We construct a new parametrization of the supranuclear equation of state that allows us to test for the existence of a strong phase transition and extract its characteristic properties purely from the gravitational-wave signal of the inspiraling neutron stars. We test our approach using a Bayesian inference study simulating 600 signals with three different equations of state and find that for current gravitational-wave detector networks already 12 events might be sufficient to verify the presence of a strong phase transition. Finally, we use our methodology to analyze GW170817 and GW190425 but do not find any indication that a strong phase transition is present at densities probed during the inspiral.},
  language  = {en}
}