Detection and localization of single-source gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays

Abstract

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) can be used to search for very low frequency ($10^{-9}$--$10^{-7}$ Hz) gravitational waves (GWs). In this paper we present a general method for the detection and localization of single-source GWs using PTAs. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this new method for three types of signals: monochromatic waves as expected from individual supermassive binary black holes in circular orbits, GWs from eccentric binaries and GW bursts. We also test its implementation in realistic data sets that include effects such as uneven sampling and heterogeneous data spans and measurement precision. It is shown that our method, which works in the frequency domain, performs as well as published time-domain methods. In particular, we find it equivalent to the ${\mathcal{F}}_e$-statistic for monochromatic waves. We also discuss the construction of null streams -- data streams that have null response to GWs, and the prospect of using null streams as a consistency check in the case of detected GW signals. Finally, we present sensitivities to individual supermassive binary black holes in eccentric orbits. We find that a monochromatic search that is designed for circular binaries can efficiently detect eccentric binaries with both high and low eccentricities, while a harmonic summing technique provides greater sensitivities only for binaries with moderate eccentricities.

To match the published version, 17 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (22)

• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• The Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) Project
• Tempo2, a new pulsar timing package. II: The timing model and precision estimates
• Upper bounds on the low-frequency stochastic gravitational wave background from pulsar timing observations: current limits and future prospects
• Coherent method for detection of gravitational wave bursts
• Gravitational waves from resolvable massive black hole binary systems and observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Measuring the parameters of massive black hole binary systems with Pulsar Timing Array observations of gravitational waves
• Gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings: Quantitative analysis and constraints
• An all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array data set
• NANOGrav Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Circular Orbits
• Searching for gravitational wave memory bursts with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Prospects for gravitational-wave detection and supermassive black hole astrophysics with pulsar timing arrays
• Binary super-massive black hole environments diminish the gravitational-wave signal in the pulsar timing band
• Observing the dynamics of super-massive black hole binaries with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Assessing Pulsar Timing Array Sensitivity to Gravitational Wave Bursts with Memory
• Accelerated Bayesian model-selection and parameter-estimation in continuous gravitational-wave searches with pulsar-timing arrays
• A coherent method for the detection and estimation of continuous gravitational wave signals using a pulsar timing array
• Geometrical Expression of the Angular Resolution of a Network of Gravitational-Wave Detectors and Improved Localization Methods
• Data Analysis of Gravitational Waves Using A Network of Detectors
• The Role of FAST in Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Searching for Gravitational Wave Bursts via Bayesian Nonparametric Data Analysis with Pulsar Timing Arrays

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Expected properties of the first gravitational wave signal detected with pulsar timing arrays
• Detection and localization of continuous gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays: the role of pulsar terms
• Statistical Analyses for NANOGrav 5-year Timing Residuals