Paper detail

Tidal deformations of neutron stars with elastic crusts

With the first detections of binary neutron star mergers by gravitational-wave detectors, it proves timely to consider how the internal structure of neutron stars affects the way in which they can be asymmetrically deformed. Such deformations may leave measurable imprints on gravitational-wave signals and can be sourced through tidal interactions or the formation of mountains. We detail the formalism that describes fully-relativistic neutron star models with elastic crusts undergoing static perturbations. This formalism primes the problem for studies into a variety of mechanisms that can deform a neutron star. We present results for a barotropic equation of state and a realistic model for the elastic crust, which enables us to compute relevant quantities such as the tidal deformability parameter. We find that the inclusion of an elastic crust provides a very small correction to the tidal deformability. The results allow us to demonstrate when and where the crust starts to fail during a binary inspiral and we find that the majority of the crust will remain intact up until merger.