Model comparison from LIGO-Virgo data on GW170817's binary components and consequences for the merger remnant

Understand

GW170817 is the very first observation of gravitational waves originating from the coalescence of two compact objects in the mass range of neutron stars, accompanied by electromagnetic counterparts, and offers an opportunity to directly probe the internal structure of neutron stars.

• We perform Bayesian model selection on a wide range of theoretical predictions for the neutron star equation of state.
• For the binary neutron star hypothesis, we find that we cannot rule out the majority of theoretical models considered.
• In addition, the gravitational-wave data alone does not rule out the possibility that one or both objects were low-mass black holes.