Detectability of Gravitational Waves from High-Redshift Binaries

Abstract

Recent non-detection of gravitational-wave backgrounds from pulsar timing arrays casts further uncertainty on the evolution of supermassive black hole binaries. We study the capabilities of current gravitational-wave observatories to detect individual binaries and demonstrate that, contrary to conventional wisdom, some are in principle detectable throughout the Universe. In particular, a binary with rest-frame mass $\gtrsim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ can be detected by current timing arrays at arbitrarily high redshifts. The same claim will apply for less massive binaries with more sensitive future arrays. As a consequence, future searches for nanohertz gravitational waves could be expanded to target evolving high-redshift binaries. We calculate the maximum distance at which binaries can be observed with pulsar timing arrays and other detectors, properly accounting for redshift and using realistic binary waveforms.

5 pages, 5 figures

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• Prospects for gravitational wave astronomy with next generation large-scale pulsar timing arrays
• Searching for continuous gravitational waves in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Data Release 3