Long-Term Timing of Millisecond Pulsars and Gravitational Wave Detection

Abstract

(Abridged) This thesis presents long-term timing results on 20 millisecond pulsars (MSPs). It has been predicted that such timing may detect gravitational waves (GWs) - a major (but untested) prediction of general relativity. Our results demonstrate that most of the investigated MSPs have sufficient stability to enable such detection experiments. Furthermore, the timing data of the brightest few sources shows that timing at sub-100 ns precision may be achievable and that, therefore, GW detection within the next decade is likely. Finally, we use our data to place a strong limit on the strength of a predicted background of GWs.

Ph. D. Thesis; Swinburne University of Technology; 148 pages, 26 figures

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Mass and Geometric Measurements of Binary Millisecond Pulsars
• Assessing the Role of Spin Noise in the Precision Timing of Millisecond Pulsars
• Testing Theories of Gravitation Using 21-Year Timing of Pulsar Binary J1713+0747
• A stability result for purely radiative spacetimes