In this article, I introduce ideas and techniques to extract information about the equation of state of matter at very high densities from gravitational waves emitted before, during and after the merger of binary neutron stars. I also review current work and results on the actual use of the first gravitational-wave observation of a neutron-star merger to set constraints on properties of such equation of state. In passing, I also touch on the possibility that what we observe in gravitational waves are not neutron stars, but something more exotic. In order to make this article more accessible, I also review the dynamics and gravitational-wave emission of neutron-star mergers in general, with focus on numerical simulations and on which representations of the equation of state are used for studies on binary systems.

中文翻译：

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中子星合并产生的引力波及其与核状态方程的关系

在本文中，我介绍了从双中子星合并之前、期间和之后发出的引力波中提取有关极高密度物质状态方程信息的想法和技术。我还回顾了当前的工作和实际使用中子星合并的第一次引力波观测的结果，以设置对这种状态方程的属性的约束。顺便说一下，我们在引力波中观察到的可能不是中子星，而是更奇特的东西。为了使这篇文章更容易理解，我还概括地回顾了中子星合并的动力学和引力波发射，重点是数值模拟以及状态方程的哪些表示用于研究双星系统。