Studying the Solar system dynamics using pulsar timing arrays and the LINIMOSS dynamical model

Abstract

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) can be used to study the Solar-system ephemeris (SSE), the errors of which can lead to correlated timing residuals and significantly contribute to the PTA noise budget. Most Solar-system studies with PTAs assume the dominance of the term from the shift of the Solar-system barycentre (SSB). However, it is unclear to which extent this approximation can be valid, since the perturbations on the planetary orbits may become important as data precision keeps increasing. To better understand the effects of SSE uncertainties on pulsar timing, we develop the LINIMOSS dynamical model of the Solar system, based on the SSE of Guangyu Li. Using the same input parameters as DE435, the calculated planetary positions by LINIMOSS are compatible with DE435 at centimetre level over a 20-year timespan, which is sufficiently precise for pulsar-timing applications. We utilize LINIMOSS to investigate the effects of SSE errors on pulsar timing in a fully dynamical way, by perturbing one SSE parameter per trial and examining the induced timing residuals. For the outer planets, the timing residuals are dominated by the SSB shift, as assumed in previous work. For the inner planets, the variations in the orbit of the Earth are more prominent, making previously adopted assumptions insufficient. The power spectra of the timing residuals have complex structures, which may introduce false signals in the search of gravitational waves. We also study how to infer the SSE parameters using PTAs, and calculate the accuracy of parameter estimation.

arXiv comment10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (11)

• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• Tempo2, a new pulsar timing package. II: The timing model and precision estimates
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: First Data Release
• The NANOGrav 11-year Data Set: Pulsar-timing Constraints On The Stochastic Gravitational-wave Background
• A study of spatial correlations in pulsar timing array data
• Measuring the mass of solar system planets using pulsar timing
• All correlations must die: Assessing the significance of a stochastic gravitational-wave background in pulsar-timing arrays
• Interplanetary spacecraft navigation using pulsars
• Model-based asymptotically optimal dispersion measure correction for pulsar timing
• Studying the solar system with the International Pulsar Timing Array
• A dynamical approach in exploring the unknown mass in the Solar system using pulsar timing arrays

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Search for an isotropic gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Searching for the nano-Hertz stochastic gravitational wave background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data Release I
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array III. Search for gravitational wave signals
• Common-red-signal analysis with 24-yr high-precision timing of the European Pulsar Timing Array: Inferences in the stochastic gravitational-wave background search
• The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Third Data Release
• The NANOGrav 15-Year Data Set: Detector Characterization and Noise Budget
• The Gravitational-Wave Physics II: Progress
• Modeling the uncertainties of solar-system ephemerides for robust gravitational-wave searches with pulsar timing arrays
• The Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomer
• Quality over Quantity: Optimizing pulsar timing array analysis for stochastic and continuous gravitational wave signals
• Is there a spectral turnover in the spin noise of millisecond pulsars?
• Status Report on Global Pulsar-Timing-Array Efforts to Detect Gravitational Waves
• Pulsar Timing Array Experiments
• Effects of Coronal Mass Ejection on PSR J1022+1001 and Possible Mode Change of PSR J2145-0750 in the InPTA DR2