Comparing binary neutron star gravitational waveforms from numerical relativity codes

Binary neutron stars (BNS) are one of the few sources of observable gravitational wave (GW) emissions. Numerical relativity (NR) models are crucial to understanding BNS detections, which provide an opportunity to not only study strong-field dynamics but also constrain the neutron star equation of state (EOS). However, there are numerous difficulties involved in producing accurate and robust numerical BNS waveforms, and how to do so systematically is not well understood. We assess the convergence properties and consistency in BNS waveforms from the state-of-the-art NR codes SpEC, SpECTRE, and FIL.