Paper detail

ESO Expanding Horizon White Paper: Revealing the properties of matter at supranuclear densities with gravitational waves

Understanding dense matter under extreme conditions is one of the most fundamental puzzles in modern physics. Complex interactions give rise to emergent, collective phenomena. While nuclear experiments and Earth - based colliders provide valuable insights, much of the quantum chromodynamics phase diagram at high density and low temperature remains accessible only through astrophysical observations of neutron stars, neutron star mergers, and stellar collapse. Astronomical observations thus offer a direct window to the physics on subatomic scales with gravitational waves presenting an especially clean channel. Next-generation gravitational - wave observatories, such as the Einstein Telescope, would serve as unparalleled instruments to transform our understanding of neutron star matter. They will enable the detection of up to tens of thousands of binary neutron star and neutron star - black hole mergers per year, a dramatic increase over the few events accessible with current detectors. They will provide an unprecedented precision in probing cold, dense matter during the binary inspiral, exceeding by at least an order of magnitude what current facilities can achieve. Moreover, these observatories will allow us to explore uncharted regimes of dense matter at finite temperatures produced in a subset of neutron star mergers, areas that remain entirely inaccessible to current instruments. Together with multimessenger observations, these measurements will significantly deepen our knowledge of dense nuclear matter.