{
  "abstract": "Gravitational-wave observations of neutron star mergers allows us to probe the dense portion of the nuclear equation of state. We develop a formalism for testing the existence and order of phase transitions in the cores of neutron stars using only gravitational-wave observations of their inspiral. We test our formalism on data from the first binary neutron star mergers GW170817 and GW190425, and use synthetic injections assuming the next and uber-next upgrades of the LIGO observatories, A+ and A#, as well as with Cosmic Explorer. We show that populations of mergers in either A+ or A# will be able to measure the existence of a first-order phase transition in observations lasting less than one PhD (less than half a US PhD!). On the other hand, with only the inspiral, we cannot distinguish populations of neutron stars with no phase transition from those with second- or third-order phase transitions or with first-order phase transitions with relatively large transition densities.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.27287",
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Paul D. Lasky"
    },
    {
      "name": "Alexander Clevinger"
    },
    {
      "name": "Andre G. da Silva"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ricardo L. S. Farias"
    },
    {
      "name": "Veronica Dexheimer"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c3tamm279rhv7.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.27287",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "c3tamm279rhv7",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.27287",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.HE"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "gr-qc"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223124440",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.27287",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-19",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c3tamm279rhv7.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:34:04Z",
      "native_id": "2610.27287",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.27287"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.HE",
      "subfield": "high-energy-astrophysics"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:gr-qc",
      "subfield": "gravitation"
    }
  ],
  "title": "The presence and order of QCD phase transitions from gravitational-wave observations of neutron star mergers",
  "title_text": "The presence and order of QCD phase transitions from gravitational-wave observations of neutron star mergers",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:34:04Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c3tamm279rhv7",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}