Prospects for high frequency burst searches following binary neutron star coalescence with advanced gravitational wave detectors

The equation of state plays a critical role in the physics of the merger of two neutron stars. Recent numerical simulations with a microphysical equation of state suggest the outcome of such events depends on the mass of the neutron stars. For less massive systems, simulations favor the formation of a hypermassive, quasistable neutron star, for which the oscillations produce a short, high-frequency burst of gravitational radiation. Its dominant frequency content is tightly correlated with the radius of the neutron star, and its measurement can be used to constrain the supranuclear equation of state. In contrast, the merger of higher mass systems results in prompt gravitational collapse to a black hole. We have developed an algorithm that combines waveform reconstruction from a morphology-independent search for gravitational wave transients with the Bayesian model selection to discriminate between postmerger scenarios and accurately measure the dominant oscillation frequency. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method using a catalog of simulated binary merger signals in data from LIGO and Virgo, and we discuss the prospects for this analysis in advanced ground-based gravitational wave detectors. From the waveforms considered in this work, we find that the postmerger neutron star signal may be detectable by this technique to similar to 4-12 Mpc, for sources with random sky locations and orientations with respect to the Earth. We also find that we successfully discriminate between the postmerger scenarios with similar to 95% accuracy and determine the dominant oscillation frequency of surviving postmerger neutron stars to within similar to 10 Hz, averaged over all detected signals. This leads to an uncertainty in the estimated radius of a nonrotating 1.6M(circle dot) reference neutron star of similar to 100 m.