Revealing the strength of three-nucleon interactions with the Einstein Telescope

Henrik Rose, Nina Kunert, Tim Dietrich, Peter T. H. Pang, Rory Smith, Chris Van Den Broeck, Stefano Gandolfi, Ingo Tews

Published 2023-03-20Version 1

Three-nucleon forces are crucial for the accurate description of nuclear systems, including dense matter probed in neutron stars. We explore nuclear Hamiltonians that reproduce two-nucleon scattering data and properties of light nuclei, but differ in the three-nucleon interactions among neutrons. While no significantly improved constraints can be obtained from current astrophysical data, we show that observations of neutron star mergers by next-generation detectors like the proposed Einstein Telescope could provide strong evidence to distinguish between these Hamiltonians.