Analytic modeling of tidal effects in the relativistic inspiral of binary neutron stars

To detect the gravitational-wave (GW) signal from binary neutron stars and extract information about the equation of state of matter at nuclear density, it is necessary to match the signal with a bank of accurate templates. We present the two longest (to date) general-relativistic simulations of equal-mass binary neutron stars with different compactnesses, C=0.12 and C=0.14, and compare them with a tidal extension of the effective-one-body (EOB) model. The typical numerical phasing errors over the ≃22 GW cycles are Δϕ≃±0.24 rad. By calibrating only one parameter (representing a higher-order amplification of tidal effects), the EOB model can reproduce, within the numerical error, the two numerical waveforms essentially up to the merger. By contrast, the third post-Newtonian Taylor-T4 approximant with leading-order tidal corrections dephases with respect to the numerical waveforms by several radians.