Gravitational-Wave Detection and Astrophysics with Pulsar Timing Arrays

Abstract

We have begun an exciting era for gravitational wave detection, as several world-leading experiments are breaching the threshold of anticipated signal strengths. Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are pan-Galactic gravitational wave detectors that are already cutting into the expected strength of gravitational waves from cosmic strings and binary supermassive black holes in the nHz-$\mu$Hz gravitational wave band. These limits are leading to constraints on the evolutionary state of the Universe. Here, we provide a broad review of this field, from how pulsars are used as tools for detection, to astrophysical sources of uncertainty in the signals PTAs aim to see, to the primary current challenge areas for PTA work. This review aims to provide an up-to-date reference point for new parties interested in the field of gravitational wave detection via pulsar timing.

Invited review submitted to PASP. 19 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (5)

• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits On An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Limits on the Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• Analysis of the first IPTA Mock Data Challenge by the EPTA timing data analysis working group
• Applying Bayesian Inference to the first International Pulsar Timing Array data challenge
• Results of the First IPTA Closed Mock Data Challenge

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Solving post-Newtonian accurate Kepler Equation
• Frequency-Dependent Template Profiles for High Precision Pulsar Timing
• Pulsar-timing arrays, astrometry, and gravitational waves
• Chirality of the gravitational-wave background and pulsar-timing arrays
• The search for anisotropy in the gravitational-wave background with pulsar-timing arrays
• Taming outliers in pulsar-timing datasets with hierarchical likelihoods and Hamiltonian sampling
• Proving the short-wavelength approximation in Pulsar Timing Array gravitational-wave background searches
• The Twisted Radio Structure of PSO J334.2028+01.4075, Still a Supermassive Binary Black Hole Candidate
• Gravitational waves from an SMBH binary in M87
• Bayesian cross validation for gravitational-wave searches in pulsar-timing array data