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.

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

References in corpus (24)

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• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• Echoes of a Hidden Valley at Hadron Colliders
• A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
• The Population of Viscosity- and Gravitational Wave-Driven Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Among Luminous AGN
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• Expected properties of the first gravitational wave signal detected with pulsar timing arrays
• The Local Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Landscape From Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Measuring the parameters of massive black hole binary systems with Pulsar Timing Array observations of gravitational waves
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• Pulsar Timing Probes of Primordial Black Holes and Subhalos
• Searching for gravitational wave memory bursts with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
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• A pulsar-based timescale from the International Pulsar Timing Array
• Binary super-massive black hole environments diminish the gravitational-wave signal in the pulsar timing band
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• Constraints on ultralight scalar dark matter from pulsar timing
• Constraining the Solution to the Last Parsec Problem with Pulsar Timing
• Observing the dynamics of super-massive black hole binaries with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Common-spectrum process versus cross-correlation for gravitational-wave searches using pulsar timing arrays
• INPOP new release: INPOP10e
• Pulsar Timing Array Observations of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Constraint on the early Universe by relic gravitational waves: From pulsar timing observations
• Searching for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic string cusps with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Systematics in tests of general relativity using LISA massive black hole binaries
• Rapid Construction of Joint Pulsar Timing Array Datasets: The Lite Method
• Implications of pulsar timing arrays for Gauss-Bonnet Inflation