A constraint on the dissipative tidal deformability of neutron stars

The gravitational waves emitted by neutron star binaries probe the physics of matter at supranuclear densities. During the late inspiral, tidal deformations raised on each star by the gravitational field of its companion depend crucially on the star’s internal properties. The misalignment of a star’s tidal bulge with its companion’s gravitational field encodes the strength of internal dissipative processes, which imprint onto the phase of the gravitational waves emitted. Here, we analyse gravitational wave data from the GW170817 (binary neutron star) event detected by LIGO and Virgo and find a constraint on the dissipative tidal deformability of a neutron star. From this constraint, assuming a temperature profile for each star in the binary, we obtain an order of magnitude bound on the averaged bulk (ζ) and shear (η) viscosity of each star during the inspiral: ζ ≲ 10³¹ g cm⁻¹ s⁻¹ and η ≲ 10²⁸ g cm⁻¹ s⁻¹. We forecast that these bounds could be improved by two orders of magnitude with third-generation detectors, like Cosmic Explorer, using inspiral data. These constraints already inform nuclear physics models and motivate further theoretical work to better understand the interplay between viscosity and temperature in the late inspiral of neutron stars.