Investigating the impact of high-order QCD phase transitions on BNS mergers

In this work we study how the order of the QCD phase transition affects the outcomes of a BNS merger. Starting with a collection of equations of state that feature a first order phase transition from baryonic to quark matter, we use percolation to replace the transition in each equation of state with a selection of different higher order transitions. These new families of equations of state are then used to perform BNS merger simulations, the results of which we discuss here. We will focus on the GW signals from these merger events, and the ramifications for future GW observations.