  We study the feasibility of detecting exotic cores in merging neutron stars
with ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. We focus on models with a sharp
nuclear/exotic matter interface, and assume a uniform distribution of neutron
stars in the mass range $[1,2] M_\odot$. We find that the existence of exotic
cores can be confirmed at the 70% confidence level with as few as several tens
of detections. Likewise, with such a sample, we find that some models of exotic
cores can be excluded {with high confidence}.
