Pulsar Timing Array Analysis for Black Hole Backgrounds

Abstract

An astrophysical population of supermassive black hole binaries is thought to be the strongest source of gravitational waves in the frequency range covered by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs). A potential cause for concern is that the standard cross-correlation method used in PTA data analysis assumes that the signals are isotropically distributed and Gaussian random, while the signals from a black hole population are likely to be anisotropic and deterministic. Here we argue that while the conventional analysis is not optimal, it is not hopeless either, as the standard Hellings-Downs correlation curve turns out to hold for point sources, and the small effective number of signal samples blurs the distinction between Gaussian and deterministic signals. Possible improvements to the standard cross-correlation analysis that account for the anisotropy of the signal are discussed.

10 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (6)

• The stochastic gravitational-wave background from massive black hole binary systems: implications for observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Gravitational waves from resolvable massive black hole binary systems and observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• On measuring the gravitational-wave background using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The recycling of gas and metals in galaxy formation: predictions of a dynamical feedback model
• A Solution to the Galactic Foreground Problem for LISA
• Towards a unified treatment of gravitational-wave data analysis

Cited by in corpus (40)

• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Evidence for a Gravitational-Wave Background
• The NANOGrav 11-year Data Set: High-precision timing of 45 Millisecond Pulsars
• Stochastic Gravitational Wave Backgrounds
• Expected properties of the first gravitational wave signal detected with pulsar timing arrays
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• The NANOGrav 15-Year Data Set: Detector Characterization and Noise Budget
• From Bright Binaries To Bumpy Backgrounds: Mapping Realistic Gravitational Wave Skies With Pulsar-Timing Arrays
• Massive black hole binary systems and the NANOGrav 12.5 year results
• Variance of the Hellings-Downs Correlation
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array V. Search for continuous gravitational wave signals
• Limits on anisotropy in the nanohertz stochastic gravitational-wave background
• Towards Robust Gravitational Wave Detection with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Gravitational wave emission from binary supermassive black holes
• Fisher formalism for anisotropic gravitational-wave background searches with pulsar timing arrays
• Chirality of the gravitational-wave background and pulsar-timing arrays
• The search for anisotropy in the gravitational-wave background with pulsar-timing arrays
• Harmonic space analysis of pulsar timing array redshift maps
• Answers to frequently asked questions about the pulsar timing array Hellings and Downs curve
• Joint search for isolated sources and an unresolved confusion background in pulsar timing array data
• Pulsar-timing measurement of the circular polarization of the stochastic gravitational-wave background
• Anisotropies in the gravitational wave background as a probe of the cosmic string network
• Cosmic variance in the nanohertz gravitational wave background
• Source anisotropies and pulsar timing arrays
• Pulsar Timing Array Harmonic Analysis and Source Angular Correlations
• How to Detect an Astrophysical Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Background
• Spatial and Spectral Characterization of the Gravitational-wave Background with the PTA Optimal Statistic
• An estimate of the stochastic gravitational wave background from the MassiveBlackII simulation
• Measuring kinematic anisotropies with pulsar timing arrays
• Optimal reconstruction of the Hellings and Downs correlation
• Review of Pulsar Timing Array for Gravitational Wave Research
• Separating deterministic and stochastic gravitational wave signals in realistic pulsar timing array datasets
• Cosmic variance of the Hellings and Downs correlation for ensembles of universes having nonzero angular power spectra
• Co-evolution of supermassive black holes with galaxies from semi-analytic model: stochastic gravitational wave background and black hole clustering
• An estimate of the gravitational-wave background from the observed cosmological distribution of quasars
• Anisotropy of Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Background and Source Clustering from Supermassive Binary Black Holes Based on Cosmological Simulation
• Signature of polarized ultralight vector dark matter in pulsar timing arrays
• Hemisphere-averaged Hellings-Downs curve between pulsar pairs for a gravitational wave source
• Spatial Correlation between Pulsars from Interfering Gravitational-Wave Sources in Massive Gravity
• Can we hear beats with pulsar timing arrays?
• Exploring realistic nanohertz gravitational-wave backgrounds