Gravitational Waves of Holographic Neutron Stars

ended

The proposal aims at making substantial progress on the theoretical understanding of neutron stars (NSs) by constructing holographic models for the matter inside the stars and by developing a novel tool for high-resolution NS merger simulations. The first observation of gravitational waves (GWs) from a NS merger in August 2017 by the LIGO observatory induced huge interest that goes far beyond the scientific expert community. Many more observations are expected in the near future and progress in the theoretical understanding of NS mergers is therefore sorely needed. We propose an entirely new approach and construct equations of state (EoSs), using the gauge-gravity duality (“holography” for short), for the NS matter in merger simulations. Holography establishes an effective framework to model subatomic matter at densities relevant for NSs, where traditional methods like perturbation theory, lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and low-energy effective theories are not applicable. In that way we will generate predictions for the merger dynamics and the gravitational waveforms, which will lead to additional theoretical insights when confronted with future observations. Applying holography to NS merger physics is a completely new concept and potentially opens a new field of holographic gravitational wave model building. The proposal has a strong multidisciplinary character as it combines aspects of string theory, high energy physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics, numerical relativity and high performance computing (HPC) and will therefore lead to interest and progress in all these fields.