Pulsar timing arrays and the challenge of massive black hole binary astrophysics

Abstract

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are designed to detect gravitational waves (GWs) at nHz frequencies. The expected dominant signal is given by the superposition of all waves emitted by the cosmological population of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries. Such superposition creates an incoherent stochastic background, on top of which particularly bright or nearby sources might be individually resolved. In this contribution I describe the properties of the expected GW signal, highlighting its dependence on the overall binary population, the relation between SMBHs and their hosts, and their coupling with the stellar and gaseous environment. I describe the status of current PTA efforts, and prospect of future detection and SMBH binary astrophysics.

18 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 2014 Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, ed. C.Sopuerta (Berlin: Springer-Verlag)

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Interactions between multiple supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei: a solution to the final parsec problem
• Constraining the Solution to the Last Parsec Problem with Pulsar Timing
• Realistic consecutive galaxy mergers form eccentric PTA sources
• Detection for Intermediate-mass Binary Black Holes in Population III Star Clusters with TianQin
• Non canonical polarizations of Gravitational Waves