An all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array data set

Abstract

We present results of an all-sky search in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) Data Release 1 data set for continuous gravitational waves (GWs) in the frequency range from $5\times 10^{-9}$ to $2\times 10^{-7}$ Hz. Such signals could be produced by individual supermassive binary black hole systems in the early stage of coalescence. We phase up the pulsar timing array data set to form, for each position on the sky, two data streams that correspond to the two GW polarizations and then carry out an optimal search for GW signals on these data streams. Since no statistically significant GWs were detected, we place upper limits on the intrinsic GW strain amplitude $h_0$ for a range of GW frequencies. For example, at $10^{-8}$ Hz our analysis has excluded with $95\%$ confidence the presence of signals with $h_0⩾1.7\times 10^{-14}$. Our new limits are about a factor of four more stringent than those of Yardley et al. (2010) based on an earlier PPTA data set and a factor of two better than those reported in the recent Arzoumanian et al. (2014) paper. We also present PPTA directional sensitivity curves and find that for the most sensitive region on the sky, the current data set is sensitive to GWs from circular supermassive binary black holes with chirp masses of $10^9{M}_{\odot }$ out to a luminosity distance of about 100 Mpc. Finally, we set an upper limit of $4\times 10^{-3}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-3}{\mathrm{Gyr}}^{-1}$ at $95\%$ confidence on the coalescence rate of nearby ($z\lesssim 0.1$) supermassive binary black holes in circular orbits with chirp masses of $10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$.

arXiv commentA few typos corrected, to match the published version, 13 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (45)

• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• The international pulsar timing array project: using pulsars as a gravitational wave detector
• Data analysis of gravitational-wave signals from spinning neutron stars. I. The signal and its detection
• Tempo2, a new pulsar timing package. II: The timing model and precision estimates
• The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project
• The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
• Gravitational Waves Probe the Coalescence Rate of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves from Massive Black Hole Binaries: Predictions for LISA and Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
• Upper bounds on the low-frequency stochastic gravitational wave background from pulsar timing observations: current limits and future prospects
• Gravitational waves from resolvable massive black hole binary systems and observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Placing limits on the stochastic gravitational-wave background using European Pulsar Timing Array data
• The International Pulsar Timing Array
• Measurement and correction of variations in interstellar dispersion in high-precision pulsar timing
• The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Systematic investigation of the expected gravitational wave signal from supermassive black hole binaries in the pulsar timing band
• Timing stability of millisecond pulsars and prospects for gravitational-wave detection
• Development of a pulsar-based timescale
• Gravitational wave astronomy of single sources with a pulsar timing array
• Constraining the properties of the proposed supermassive black hole system in 3c66b: Limits from pulsar timing
• Pulsar timing analysis in the presence of correlated noise
• Gravitational-wave Limits from Pulsar Timing Constrain Supermassive Black Hole Evolution
• Measuring the parameters of massive black hole binary systems with Pulsar Timing Array observations of gravitational waves
• The Sensitivity of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array to Individual Sources of Gravitational Waves
• Resolving multiple supermassive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays
• Optimal strategies for continuous gravitational wave detection in pulsar timing arrays
• Insights on the astrophysics of supermassive black hole binaries from pulsar timing observations
• Does a 'stochastic' background of gravitational waves exist in the pulsar timing band?
• Prospects for gravitational-wave detection and supermassive black hole astrophysics with pulsar timing arrays
• Gravitational-Wave Data Analysis. Formalism and Sample Applications: The Gaussian Case
• Binary super-massive black hole environments diminish the gravitational-wave signal in the pulsar timing band
• A Bayesian analysis pipeline for continuous GW sources in the PTA band
• On detection of the stochastic gravitational-wave background using the Parkes pulsar timing array
• Accelerated Bayesian model-selection and parameter-estimation in continuous gravitational-wave searches with pulsar-timing arrays
• Resolving multiple supermassive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays II: genetic algorithm implementation
• A Very Close Binary Black Hole in a Giant Elliptical Galaxy 3C 66B and its Black Hole Merger
• Constraining the coalescence rate of supermassive black-hole binaries using pulsar timing
• Pulsar Timing Array Observations of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Multi-messenger approaches to binary supermassive black holes in the "continuous-wave" regime
• Pulsar timing array observations of gravitational wave source timing parallax
• Targeting supermassive black hole binaries and gravitational wave sources for the pulsar timing array
• Measuring Black Hole Spin in OJ287
• Gravitational Wave Hotspots: Ranking Potential Locations of Single-Source Gravitational Wave Emission

Cited by in corpus (93)

• The NANOGrav 11-year Data Set: High-precision timing of 45 Millisecond Pulsars
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: First Data Release
• A systematic search for close supermassive black hole binaries in the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: Second data release
• The Astrophysics of Nanohertz Gravitational Waves
• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits on Continuous Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Dark Energy in light of Multi-Messenger Gravitational-Wave astronomy
• The NANOGrav 11-Year Data Set: Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• A Study of Multi-frequency Polarization Pulse Profiles of Millisecond Pulsars
• Fundamentals of the orbit and response for TianQin
• The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project: Second data release
• An astrometric search method for individually resolvable gravitational wave sources with Gaia
• Parkes Pulsar Timing Array constraints on ultralight scalar-field dark matter
• Single Sources in the Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Sky: properties and time to detection by pulsar timing arrays
• The Gravitational-Wave Physics II: Progress
• Searching for gravitational wave memory bursts with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Time-domain Implementation of the Optimal Cross-Correlation Statistic for Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background Searches in Pulsar Timing Data
• Prospects for gravitational-wave detection and supermassive black hole astrophysics with pulsar timing arrays
• From Bright Binaries To Bumpy Backgrounds: Mapping Realistic Gravitational Wave Skies With Pulsar-Timing Arrays
• Testing the binary hypothesis: pulsar timing constraints on supermassive black hole binary candidates
• Constraining the Solution to the Last Parsec Problem with Pulsar Timing
• Detection of eccentric supermassive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays: Signal-to-noise ratio calculations
• Constraining Sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars with Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy. III. Candidates from Continued Radial Velocity Tests
• Non-tensorial Gravitational Wave Background in NANOGrav 12.5-Year Data Set
• The Parkes pulsar timing array second data release: Timing analysis
• Searching for continuous Gravitational Waves in the second data release of the International Pulsar Timing Array
• Pulsar Timing Array Based Search for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in the Square Kilometer Array Era
• Pulsars and Gravity
• NANOGrav Constraints on Gravitational Wave Bursts with Memory
• Pulsar timing can constrain primordial black holes in the LIGO mass window
• Detection and localization of single-source gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays
• Gravitational waves: Classification, Methods of detection, Sensitivities, and Sources
• A reduced orbital period for the supermassive black hole binary candidate in the quasar PG 1302-102?
• Candidate Periodically Variable Quasars from the Dark Energy Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Gravitational wave research using pulsar timing arrays
• Dynamical evolution of cosmic supermassive binary black holes and their gravitational wave radiation
• Multi-messenger Time-domain Signatures Of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Detection and localization of continuous gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays: the role of pulsar terms
• Pulsar timing residual induced by ultralight tensor dark matter
• Constraining ultralight vector dark matter with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array second data release
• Versatile Directional Searches for Gravitational Waves with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Discovery of a Candidate Binary Supermassive Black Hole in a Periodic Quasar from Circumbinary Accretion Variability
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Pulsar Timing and its Application for Navigation and Gravitational Wave Detection
• Toward the unambiguous identification of supermassive binary black holes through Bayesian inference
• Constraints on Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from Pulsar Timing Array Limits on Continuous Gravitational Waves
• The NANOGrav 11yr Data Set: Limits on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Galaxies within 500Mpc
• Pulsars probe the low-frequency gravitational sky: Pulsar Timing Arrays basics and recent results
• The Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomer
• Optimal Frequency Ranges for Sub-Microsecond Precision Pulsar Timing
• Improving timing sensitivity in the microhertz frequency regime: limits from PSR J1713$+$0747 on gravitational waves produced by super-massive black-hole binaries
• Comparison of Pulsar Positions from Timing and Very Long Baseline Astrometry
• The minimum and maximum gravitational-wave background from supermassive binary black holes
• Searching for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic string cusps with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Pulsar timing array constraints on spin-2 ULDM
• Detectability of Gravitational Waves from High-Redshift Binaries
• Cosmic variance in the nanohertz gravitational wave background
• Detecting nanohertz gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays
• Pulsar Timing Perturbations from Galactic Gravitational Wave Bursts with Memory
• Measuring supermassive black hole peculiar motion using H${}_2$O megamasers
• Spectral Energy Distributions of Candidate Periodically-Variable Quasars: Testing the Binary Black Hole Hypothesis
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year data set: A computationally efficient eccentric binary search pipeline and constraints on an eccentric supermassive binary candidate in 3C 66B
• Constraints on the abundance of supermassive primordial black holes from lensing of compact radio sources
• Extending the frequency reach of pulsar timing array based gravitational wave search without high cadence observations
• Null stream analysis of Pulsar Timing Array data: localisation of resolvable gravitational wave sources
• Reliable Identification of Binary Supermassive Black Holes from Rubin Observatory Time-Domain Monitoring
• Using Pulsar Parameter Drifts to Detect Sub-Nanohertz Gravitational Waves
• Noise in pulsar timing arrays
• Pulsar Timing Array Experiments
• Multifractal Analysis of Pulsar Timing Residuals: Assessment of Gravitational Wave Detection
• Radio pulsars: testing gravity and detecting gravitational waves
• Single-Source Gravitational Wave Limits from the J1713+0747 24-hr Global Campaign
• On Detecting Nearby Nano-Hertz Gravitational Wave Sources via Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Gravitational wave detection from OJ 287 via a pulsar timing array
• Iterative time-domain method for resolving multiple gravitational wave sources in Pulsar Timing Array data
• Constraints on individual supermassive binary black holes using observations of PSR J1909-3744
• Analysis of Multi-Hour Continuous Observations of Seven Millisecond Pulsars
• A Study in Frequency-Dependent Effects on Precision Pulsar Timing Parameters with the Pulsar Signal Simulator
• Parameter-Estimation Biases for Eccentric Supermassive Binary Black Holes in Pulsar Timing Arrays: Biases Caused by Ignored Pulsar Terms
• Efficient Bayesian inference and model selection for continuous gravitational waves in pulsar timing array data
• Reducing instrumental errors in Parkes Pulsar Timing Array data
• Fresnel Models for Gravitational Wave Effects on Pulsar Timing
• Detailed study of detection method for ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves with pulsar spin-down rate statistics
• Measuring $H_0$ with pulsar timing arrays
• Detectability of dark matter density distribution via gravitational waves from binary black holes in the Galactic center
• Realistic assessment of a single gravitational wave source localization taking into account precise pulsar distances with pulsar timing arrays
• Anisotropy of Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Background and Source Clustering from Supermassive Binary Black Holes Based on Cosmological Simulation
• Searching for continuous gravitational waves in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Data Release 3
• Search for Continuous Gravitational Wave Signals in Pulsar Timing Residuals: A New Scalable Approach with Diffusive Nested Sampling
• Fast Bayesian analysis of individual binaries in pulsar timing array data
• Machine Learning for Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Detection and Parameter Estimation with Pulsar Timing Array
• Upper limits on microhertz gravitational waves from supermassive black-hole binaries using PSR J1909-3744 data from the second IPTA data release