The Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomer

Abstract

Gravitational waves are a radically new way to peer into the darkest depths of the cosmos. Pulsars can be used to make direct detections of gravitational waves through precision timing. When a gravitational wave passes between a pulsar and the Earth, it stretches and squeezes the intermediate space-time, leading to deviations of the measured pulse arrival times away from model expectations. Combining the data from many Galactic pulsars can corroborate such a signal, and enhance its detection significance. This technique is known as a Pulsar Timing Array (PTA). Here I provide an overview of PTAs as a precision gravitational-wave detection instrument, then review the types of signal and noise processes that we encounter in typical pulsar data analysis. I take a pragmatic approach, illustrating how searches are performed in real life, and where possible directing the reader to codes or techniques that they can explore for themselves. The goal is to provide theoretical background and practical recipes for data exploration that allow the reader to join in the exciting hunt for very low frequency gravitational waves.

arXiv commentDraft of a short technical book to be published later this year by Taylor & Francis. 156 pages. Comments and errata are welcome

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• Cold and Fuzzy Dark Matter
• Ultralight scalars as cosmological dark matter
• The M-sigma and M-L Relations in Galactic Bulges and Determinations of their Intrinsic Scatter
• Cosmic strings
• Revisiting the Scaling Relations of Black Hole Masses and Host Galaxy Properties
• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• The MACHO Project: Microlensing Results from 5.7 Years of LMC Observations
• Echoes of a Hidden Valley at Hadron Colliders
• The merger rate of galaxies in the Illustris Simulation: a comparison with observations and semi-empirical models
• Detecting gravitational waves from cosmological phase transitions with LISA: an update
• LISA Capture Sources: Approximate Waveforms, Signal-to-Noise Ratios, and Parameter Estimation Accuracy
• Gravitational radiation from cosmic (super)strings: bursts, stochastic background, and observational windows
• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits On An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project
• Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations
• High-precision timing of 42 millisecond pulsars with the European Pulsar Timing Array
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: First Data Release
• A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
• Gravitational wave bursts from cosmic strings
• Gravitational Waves Probe the Coalescence Rate of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Evolution of massive binary black holes
• Gravitational wave bursts from cusps and kinks on cosmic strings
• The Quest for B Modes from Inflationary Gravitational Waves
• Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves from Massive Black Hole Binaries: Predictions for LISA and Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
• Gravitational Waves From a Dark (Twin) Phase Transition
• The Kozai Mechanism and the Evolution of Binary Supermassive Black Holes
• The Population of Viscosity- and Gravitational Wave-Driven Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Among Luminous AGN
• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Limits on the Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• A systematic search for close supermassive black hole binaries in the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey
• The first WIMPy halos
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: Second data release
• Massive Black Hole Binary Evolution
• Gravitational-Wave Stochastic Background from Kinks and Cusps on Cosmic Strings
• Placing limits on the stochastic gravitational-wave background using European Pulsar Timing Array data
• The evolution of a supermassive binary caused by an accretion disc
• The Quest for Dual and Binary Supermassive Black Holes: A Multi-Messenger View
• A Population of Short-Period Variable Quasars from PTF as Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates
• Pulsar timing signal from ultralight scalar dark matter
• Expected properties of the first gravitational wave signal detected with pulsar timing arrays
• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits on Continuous Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Massive Black Hole Binary Mergers in Dynamical Galactic Environments
• The stochastic background: scaling laws and time to detection for pulsar timing arrays
• Gravitational-wave cosmology across 29 decades in frequency
• Gravitational wave astronomy of single sources with a pulsar timing array
• Development of a pulsar-based timescale
• Post-Newtonian corrections to the gravitational-wave memory for quasicircular, inspiralling compact binaries
• Constraints on cosmic string tension imposed by the limit on the stochastic gravitational wave background from the European Pulsar Timing Array
• The Local Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Landscape From Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• The Gravitational Wave Background from Massive Black Hole Binaries in Illustris: spectral features and time to detection with pulsar timing arrays
• Gravitational-wave Limits from Pulsar Timing Constrain Supermassive Black Hole Evolution
• Supermassive Black Hole Binary Evolution in Axisymmetric Galaxies: the final parsec problem is not a problem
• A Practical Theorem on Gravitational Wave Backgrounds
• Gas driven massive black hole binaries: signatures in the nHz gravitational wave background
• Characterising gravitational wave stochastic background anisotropy with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Detection of gravitational waves from the QCD phase transition with pulsar timing arrays
• Measuring the parameters of massive black hole binary systems with Pulsar Timing Array observations of gravitational waves
• An all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array data set
• Planck Constraint on Relic Primordial Black Holes
• Orbital Evolution of Equal-mass Eccentric Binaries due to a Gas Disk: Eccentric Inspirals and Circular Outspirals
• Searching For Anisotropic Gravitational-wave Backgrounds Using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• A study of spatial correlations in pulsar timing array data
• Pulsar Timing Probes of Primordial Black Holes and Subhalos
• Searching for gravitational wave memory bursts with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Testing Theories of Gravitation Using 21-Year Timing of Pulsar Binary J1713+0747
• Interactions between multiple supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei: a solution to the final parsec problem
• A pulsar-based timescale from the International Pulsar Timing Array
• The stochastic gravity-wave background: sources and detection
• From Bright Binaries To Bumpy Backgrounds: Mapping Realistic Gravitational Wave Skies With Pulsar-Timing Arrays
• Constraining astrophysical observables of Galaxy and Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Binary super-massive black hole environments diminish the gravitational-wave signal in the pulsar timing band
• Modeling the uncertainties of solar-system ephemerides for robust gravitational-wave searches with pulsar timing arrays
• A Large Systematic Search for Close Supermassive Binary and Rapidly Recoiling Black Holes - III. Radial Velocity Variations
• Post-Newtonian evolution of massive black hole triplets in galactic nuclei -- III. A robust lower limit to the nHz stochastic background of gravitational waves
• Massive black hole binary systems and the NANOGrav 12.5 year results
• Massive BH Binaries as Periodically-Variable AGN
• Constraining the Solution to the Last Parsec Problem with Pulsar Timing
• Constraining Sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars with Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy. III. Candidates from Continued Radial Velocity Tests
• Detection of eccentric supermassive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays: Signal-to-noise ratio calculations
• Constraints on ultralight scalar dark matter from pulsar timing
• Recognising Axionic Dark Matter by Compton and de-Broglie Scale Modulation of Pulsar Timing
• The loss cone problem in axisymmetric nuclei
• Constraints On The Dynamical Environments Of Supermassive Black-hole Binaries Using Pulsar-timing Arrays
• Efficient computation of the gravitational wave spectrum emitted by eccentric massive black hole binaries in stellar environments
• Candidate Periodically Variable Quasars from the Dark Energy Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Prospects for Detecting Dark Matter Halo Substructure with Pulsar Timing
• Studying the solar system with the International Pulsar Timing Array
• Searching for primordial black hole dark matter with pulsar timing arrays
• Observing the dynamics of super-massive black hole binaries with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The optimal schedule for pulsar timing array observations
• Common-spectrum process versus cross-correlation for gravitational-wave searches using pulsar timing arrays
• Projected constraints on the cosmic (super)string tension with future gravitational wave detection experiments
• The NANOGrav Program for Gravitational Waves and Fundamental Physics
• Pulsar Timing Array Observations of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• INPOP new release: INPOP10e
• Probing the assembly history and dynamical evolution of massive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays
• Model Dependence of Bayesian Gravitational-Wave Background Statistics for Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Microlensing of Kepler Stars as a Method of Detecting Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter
• Constraint on the early Universe by relic gravitational waves: From pulsar timing observations
• Bayesian Forecasts for Dark Matter Substructure Searches with Mock Pulsar Timing Data
• Pulsar timing array signals induced by black hole binaries in relativistic eccentric orbits
• Enhanced exploration for primordial black holes using pulsar timing arrays
• Pulsar science with the CHIME telescope
• Searching for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic string cusps with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Studying the Solar system dynamics using pulsar timing arrays and the LINIMOSS dynamical model
• Evolution Of Massive Black Hole Binaries In Rotating Stellar Nuclei: Implications For Gravitational Wave Detection
• INPOP new release: INPOP13b
• Precision Timing of PSR J0437-4715 with the IAR Observatory and Implications for Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Source Sensitivity

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Search for an isotropic gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Observations and Timing of 68 Millisecond Pulsars
• The NANOGrav 15-Year Data Set: Detector Characterization and Noise Budget
• Can we observe the QCD phase transition-generated gravitational waves through pulsar timing arrays?
• A Test of Gravity with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Measuring eccentricity and gas-induced perturbation from gravitational waves of LISA massive black hole binaries
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year data set: A computationally efficient eccentric binary search pipeline and constraints on an eccentric supermassive binary candidate in 3C 66B
• Systematics in tests of general relativity using LISA massive black hole binaries
• Very Large Array imaging rules out precessing radio jets in three DES$-$SDSS-selected candidate periodic quasars
• Rapid Construction of Joint Pulsar Timing Array Datasets: The Lite Method
• Implications of pulsar timing arrays for Gauss-Bonnet Inflation