Using a set of model equations of state satisfying the latest constraints from both terrestrial nuclear experiments and astrophysical observations, as well as state-of-the-art nuclear many-body calculations of the pure neutron matter equation of state, the tidal polarizability of canonical neutron stars in coalescing binaries is found to be a very sensitive probe of the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy, which is among the most uncertain properties of dense neutron-rich nucleonic matter. Moreover, it changes less than $\pm 10\%$ by varying various properties of symmetric nuclear matter and symmetry energy around the saturation density within their respective ranges of remaining uncertainty.

• Received 11 October 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.87.015806