Principles of Gravitational-Wave Detection with Pulsar Timing Arrays

Pulsar timing uses the highly stable pulsar spin period to investigate many astrophysical topics. In particular, pulsar timing arrays make use of a set of extremely well-timed pulsars and their time correlations as a challenging detector of gravitational waves. It turns out that pulsar timing arrays are particularly sensitive to ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves, which makes them complementary to other gravitational-wave detectors. Here, we summarize the basics, focusing especially on supermassive black-hole binaries and cosmic strings, which have the potential to form a stochastic gravitational-wave background in the pulsar timing array detection band, and the scientific goals on this challenging topic. We also briefly outline the recent interesting results of the main pulsar timing array collaborations, which have found strong evidence of a common-spectrum process compatible with a stochastic gravitational-wave background and mention some new perspectives that are particularly interesting in view of the forthcoming radio observatories such as the Five hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, the MeerKAT telescope, and the Square Kilometer Array.

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PULSAR TIMING ARRAYS

International Journal of Modern Physics D ◽

10.1142/s0218271813410083 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 22 (01) ◽

pp. 1341008 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

BHAL CHANDRA JOSHI

Keyword(s):

Gravitational Wave ◽

Gravitational Waves ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Radio Pulsars ◽

Very Low Frequency ◽

Pulsar Timing ◽

Gravitational Wave Background ◽

Pulsar Timing Array ◽

Current Operating

In the last decade, the use of an ensemble of radio pulsars to constrain the characteristic strain caused by a stochastic gravitational wave background has advanced the cause of detection of very low frequency gravitational waves (GWs) significantly. This electromagnetic means of GW detection, called Pulsar Timing Array (PTA), is reviewed in this paper. The principle of operation of PTA, the current operating PTAs and their status are presented along with a discussion of the main challenges in the detection of GWs using PTA.

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Constraining the nanohertz gravitational wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s174392131202354x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 8 (S291) ◽

pp. 177-177

Author(s):

Ryan Shannon

Keyword(s):

Gravitational Wave ◽

Gravitational Waves ◽

Direct Detection ◽

Massive Black Hole ◽

Black Hole Binaries ◽

Pulsar Timing ◽

The Galaxy ◽

Gravitational Wave Background ◽

Pulsar Timing Array ◽

The Universe

AbstractThe direct detection of gravitational waves will usher in a new era of astrophysics, enabling the study of regions of the universe opaque to electromagnetic radiation or electromagnetically quiet. An ensemble of pulsars (referred to as a pulsar timing array) provides a set of clocks distributed across the Galaxy sensitive to gravitational waves with periods on the order of five years (frequencies of many nanohertz). Plausible source of gravitational waves in this frequency band include massive black hole binaries in the throes of mergers and oscillating cosmic strings. The stochastic gravitational wave background, the sum of gravitational waves emitted throughout the universe, is the most likely signal to be detected by a pulsar timing array.While the detection of gravitational waves will be a milestone in pulsar astronomy, a constraining limit on the strength of the gravitational wave background can be used to constrain cosmological models and early Universe physics. Here we present a new algorithm that can be used to constrain the strength of the GWB with a pulsar timing array. We then apply this technique to Parkes Pulsar Timing Array observations and place a new limit on the strength of the GWB. We conclude by discussing the astrophysical implications of this limit and the prospects for detecting gravitational waves with pulsars.

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The gravitational wave signal from close galaxy pairs

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921315008054 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 10 (S312) ◽

pp. 296-297

Author(s):

Jinzhong Liu ◽

Yu Zhang

Keyword(s):

Gravitational Wave ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Sloan Digital Sky Survey ◽

Population Synthesis ◽

Host Galaxies ◽

Black Hole Binaries ◽

Pulsar Timing ◽

Sky Survey ◽

Square Kilometer Array ◽

Pulsar Timing Array

AbstractThe early phase of coalescence of supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) from their host galaxies provides a guaranteed source of low-frequency gravitational wave (GW) radiation by pulsar timing observations. Nowadays, SMBHBs are ubiquitous in the nuclei of galaxies. A latest sample of close galaxy pairs has been released from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data. A binary population synthesis (BPS) approach has been applied to study the characteristics of clusters and galaxies. Here we report how BPS, using SDSS results, can be used to determine the GW radiation from SMBHBs. In this study we show numerical results under the assumption that SMBHBs formed through the merger of two galaxies and give the waveform evolution using post-Newtonian approximation methods. Based on the sensitivity of the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) and Square Kilometer Array (SKA) detectors, we show that the value of strain amplitude h can be changed from about 10−14 to 10−15 during the observation of 20 years, which can be considered as a precise evolution.

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Sensitivity of pulsar timing observations to low-frequency noise and search for the Gravitational Wave Background using Pulsar Timing Array

10.1063/1.3615084 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Vladimir A. Potapov ◽

Marta Burgay ◽

Nicolò D’Amico ◽

Paolo Esposito ◽

Alberto Pellizzoni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gravitational Wave ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Frequency Noise ◽

Low Frequency Noise ◽

Pulsar Timing ◽

Gravitational Wave Background ◽

Pulsar Timing Array

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Gravitational-Wave Detection Using Pulsars: Status of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia ◽

10.1071/as08023 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 103-109 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

G. B. Hobbs ◽

M. Bailes ◽

N. D. R. Bhat ◽

S. Burke-Spolaor ◽

D. J. Champion ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gravitational Wave ◽

Gravitational Waves ◽

Direct Detection ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Current Status ◽

Binary Black Holes ◽

Gravitational Wave Detection ◽

Wave Detection ◽

Pulsar Timing ◽

Pulsar Timing Array

AbstractThe first direct detection of gravitational waves may be made through observations of pulsars. The principal aim of pulsar timing-array projects being carried out worldwide is to detect ultra-low frequency gravitational waves (f ∼ 10−9–10−8 Hz). Such waves are expected to be caused by coalescing supermassive binary black holes in the cores of merged galaxies. It is also possible that a detectable signal could have been produced in the inflationary era or by cosmic strings. In this paper, we review the current status of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project (the only such project in the Southern hemisphere) and compare the pulsar timing technique with other forms of gravitational-wave detection such as ground- and space-based interferometer systems.

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Implication of pulsar timing array experiments on cosmological gravitational wave detection

AAPPS Bulletin ◽

10.1007/s43673-021-00020-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jun’ichi Yokoyama

Keyword(s):

Gravitational Wave ◽

Gravitational Waves ◽

Electromagnetic Waves ◽

Precision Measurements ◽

Observational Result ◽

Wave Detection ◽

Pulsar Timing ◽

Gravitational Wave Background ◽

Pulsar Timing Array ◽

The Universe

AbstractGravitational waves provide a new probe of the Universe which can reveal a number of cosmological and astrophysical phenomena that cannot be observed by electromagnetic waves. Different frequencies of gravitational waves are detected by different means. Among them, precision measurements of pulsar timing provides a natural detector for gravitational waves with light-year scale wavelengths. In this review, first a basic framework to detect a stochastic gravitational wave background using pulsar timing array is introduced, and then possible interpretations of the latest observational result of 12.5-year NANOGrav data are described.

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