Null stream analysis of Pulsar Timing Array data: localisation of resolvable gravitational wave sources

Abstract

Super-massive black hole binaries are expected to produce a GW signal in the nano-Hertz frequency band which may be detected by PTAs in the coming years. The signal is composed of both stochastic and individually resolvable components. Here we develop a generic Bayesian method for the analysis of resolvable sources based on the construction of `null-streams' which cancel the part of the signal held in common for each pulsar (the Earth-term). For an array of $N$ pulsars there are $N-2$ independent null-streams that cancel the GW signal from a particular sky location. This method is applied to the localisation of quasi-circular binaries undergoing adiabatic inspiral. We carry out a systematic investigation of the scaling of the localisation accuracy with signal strength and number of pulsars in the PTA. Additionally, we find that source sky localisation with the International PTA data release one is vastly superior than what is achieved by its constituent regional PTAs.

13 pages, 7 figures, 1 appendix. Edited Figures 5, 6, 7 due to a bug in the plotting script (results unchanged). Additional edit to fix a type in equation 4

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• Associating Host Galaxy Candidates to Massive Black Hole Binaries resolved by Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Ephemeris Errors and the Gravitational Wave Signal: Harmonic Mode Coupling in Pulsar Timing Array Searches
• Utilizing the null stream of the Einstein Telescope
• Identifying Host Galaxies of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Found by PTAs
• Signatures of Massive Black Hole Merger Host Galaxies from Cosmological Simulations I: Unique Galaxy Morphologies in Imaging
• Precision of localization of single gravitational-wave source with pulsar timing array
• Separating deterministic and stochastic gravitational wave signals in realistic pulsar timing array datasets
• Host Galaxy Demographics Of Individually Detectable Supermassive Black-hole Binaries with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Unveiling the existence of nontensorial gravitational-wave polarizations from individual supermassive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays