Last three seconds: Packed message delivered by tides in binary neutron star mergers

It is known that the leading-order tidal effects in gravitational waveforms can be quantified by tidal deformability, while higher order terms, e.g., harmonic overtones of Love number and dynamical tides, have not been well investigated yet. The concept of a "form factor," which is different from but resembles the effective tidal deformability, for the tidal interactions between neutron stars in coalescing binaries is illustrated here. The form factor effectively incorporates the contribution of dynamical tides. The dependence of tidal form factor on tidal deformability, spins, and inclination angles is modeled and expressed in a closed form.