scholarly journals Limits on First Structure Formation from Pulsar Timing

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 329-335
Author(s):  
R. M. Shannon
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Gravitational Waves ◽  
Galaxy Mergers ◽  
Host Galaxies ◽  
Arrival Times ◽  
Black Hole Binaries ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Pulsar Timing ◽  
Formation And Evolution ◽  
Promising Source

AbstractBy monitoring the arrival times from millisecond pulsars for years to decades, it is possible to search for, or place limits on, nanohertz frequency gravitational radiation. The most promising source of gravitational waves in this band is a stochastic background emitted from a population of supermassive black hole binaries. As these binaries are the direct product of of galaxy mergers and the properties of the SMBHs correlated strongly with their host galaxies, the gravitational wave emission of the binaries can be used to study how galaxies evolve. Here I discuss how pulsar timing can be used to search for gravitational waves, and how limits on the strength of the background are being used to challenge models of supermassive black hole formation and evolution.

scholarly journals Multi-messenger Approaches to Supermassive Black Hole Binary Detection and Parameter Estimation: Implications for Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Searches with Pulsar Timing Arrays

2021 ◽  
Vol 921 (2) ◽  
pp. 178
Author(s):  
Tingting Liu ◽  
Sarah J. Vigeland
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Parameter Estimation ◽  
Bayes Factor ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Galaxy Mergers ◽  
Black Hole Binaries ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Pulsar Timing ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Pulsar Timing Array

Abstract Pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments are becoming increasingly sensitive to gravitational waves (GWs) in the nanohertz frequency range, where the main astrophysical sources are supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs), which are expected to form following galaxy mergers. Some of these individual SMBHBs may power active galactic nuclei, and thus their binary parameters could be obtained electromagnetically, which makes it possible to apply electromagnetic (EM) information to aid the search for a GW signal in PTA data. In this work, we investigate the effects of such an EM-informed search on binary detection and parameter estimation by performing mock data analyses on simulated PTA data sets. We find that by applying EM priors, the Bayes factor of some injected signals with originally marginal or sub-threshold detectability (i.e., Bayes factor ∼1) can increase by a factor of a few to an order of magnitude, and thus an EM-informed targeted search is able to find hints of a signal when an uninformed search fails to find any. Additionally, by combining EM and GW data, one can achieve an overall improvement in parameter estimation, regardless of the source’s sky location or GW frequency. We discuss the implications for the multi-messenger studies of SMBHBs with PTAs.

scholarly journals Pulsar Timing Residuals Induced by Gravitational Waves from Single Non-evolving Supermassive Black Hole Binaries with Elliptical Orbits

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 100402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming-Lei Tong ◽  
Bao-Rong Yan ◽  
Cheng-Shi Zhao ◽  
Dong-Shan Yin ◽  
Shu-Hong Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Gravitational Waves ◽  
Black Hole Binaries ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Pulsar Timing ◽  
Elliptical Orbits

scholarly journals Morphological evolution of supermassive black hole merger hosts and multimessenger signatures

2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (3) ◽  
pp. 3629-3642
Author(s):  
Colin DeGraf ◽  
Debora Sijacki ◽  
Tiziana Di Matteo ◽  
Kelly Holley-Bockelmann ◽  
Greg Snyder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Holes ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Star Formation ◽  
Morphological Evolution ◽  
Full Range ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Morphological Evidence ◽  
Galaxy Mergers ◽  
Host Galaxies ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole

ABSTRACT With projects such as Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) expected to detect gravitational waves from supermassive black hole mergers in the near future, it is key that we understand what we expect those detections to be, and maximize what we can learn from them. To address this, we study the mergers of supermassive black holes in the Illustris simulation, the overall rate of mergers, and the correlation between merging black holes and their host galaxies. We find these mergers occur in typical galaxies along the MBH−M* relation, and that between LISA and PTAs we expect to probe the full range of galaxy masses. As galaxy mergers can trigger star formation, we find that galaxies hosting low-mass black hole mergers tend to show a slight increase in star formation rates compared to a mass-matched sample. However, high-mass merger hosts have typical star formation rates, due to a combination of low gas fractions and powerful active galactic nucleus feedback. Although minor black hole mergers do not correlate with disturbed morphologies, major mergers (especially at high-masses) tend to show morphological evidence of recent galaxy mergers which survive for ∼500 Myr. This is on the same scale as the infall/hardening time of merging black holes, suggesting that electromagnetic follow-ups to gravitational wave signals may not be able to observe this correlation. We further find that incorporating a realistic time-scale delay for the black hole mergers could shift the merger distribution towards higher masses, decreasing the rate of LISA detections while increasing the rate of PTA detections.

scholarly journals Constraints on ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves with statistics of pulsar spin-down rates

2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (3) ◽  
pp. 3547-3552
Author(s):  
Hiroki Kumamoto ◽  
Yuya Imasato ◽  
Naoyuki Yonemaru ◽  
Sachiko Kuroyanagi ◽  
Keitaro Takahashi
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Gravitational Waves ◽  
Time Derivative ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Upper Bounds ◽  
Galactic Centre ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Rate Distribution ◽  
Black Hole Binaries ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole

Abstract We probe ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs) with statistics of spin-down rates of millisecond pulsars (thereafter MSPs) by a method proposed in our previous work. The considered frequency range is 10−12 Hz ≲ fGW ≲ 10−10  Hz . The effect of such low-frequency GWs appears as a bias to spin-down rates that has a quadrupole pattern in the sky. We use the skewness of the spin-down rate distribution and the number of MSPs with negative spin-down rates to search for the bias induced by GWs. Applying this method to 149 MSPs selected from the ATNF pulsar catalogue, we derive upper bounds on the time derivative of the GW amplitudes of $\dot{h} \lt 6.2 \times 10^{-18}~{\rm s}^{-1}$ and $\dot{h} \lt 8.1 \times 10^{-18}~{\rm s}^{-1}$ in the directions of the Galactic Centre and M87, respectively. Approximating the GW amplitude as $\dot{h} \sim 2 \pi f_{\rm GW} h$, the bounds translate into h < 3 × 10−8 and h < 4 × 10−8, respectively, for fGW = 1/(1000 yr). Finally, we give the implications to possible supermassive black hole binaries at these sites.

scholarly journals DETECTING ECCENTRIC SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE BINARIES WITH PULSAR TIMING ARRAYS: RESOLVABLE SOURCE STRATEGIES

2016 ◽  
Vol 817 (1) ◽  
pp. 70 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. R. Taylor ◽  
E. A. Huerta ◽  
J. R. Gair ◽  
S. T. McWilliams
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Black Hole Binaries ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Pulsar Timing
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