Ground-based gravitational wave detectors may be able to constrain the nuclear equation of state using the early , low frequency portion of the signal of detected neutron star - neutron star inspirals .
In this early adiabatic regime , the influence of a neutron star ’ s internal structure on the phase of the waveform depends only on a single parameter \lambda of the star related to its tidal Love number , namely the ratio of the induced quadrupole moment to the perturbing tidal gravitational field .
We analyze the information obtainable from gravitational wave frequencies smaller than a cutoff frequency of 400 { } { Hz } , where corrections to the internal-structure signal are less than 10 \% .
For an inspiral of two non-spinning 1.4 M _ { \odot } neutron stars at a distance of 50 Megaparsecs , LIGO II detectors will be able to constrain \lambda to \lambda \leqslant 2.0 \times 10 ^ { 37 } { g } { } { cm } ^ { 2 } { s } ^ { 2 } with 90 \% confidence .
Fully relativistic stellar models show that the corresponding constraint on radius R for 1.4 M _ { \odot } neutron stars would be R \leqslant 13.6 { } { km } { } \left ( 15.3 { } { km } \right ) for a n = 0.5 \left ( n = 1.0 \right ) polytrope with equation of state p \propto \rho ^ { 1 + 1 / n } .