A Parallelized Bayesian Approach To Accelerated Gravitational-Wave Background Characterization

Abstract

The characterization of nanohertz-frequency gravitational waves (GWs) with pulsar-timing arrays requires a continual expansion of datasets and monitored pulsars. Whereas detection of the stochastic GW background is predicated on measuring a distinctive pattern of inter-pulsar correlations, characterizing the background's spectrum is driven by information encoded in the power spectra of the individual pulsars' time series. We propose a new technique for rapid Bayesian characterization of the stochastic GW background that is fully parallelized over pulsar datasets. This Factorized Likelihood (FL) technique empowers a modular approach to parameter estimation of the GW background, multi-stage model selection of a spectrally-common stochastic process and quadrupolar inter-pulsar correlations, and statistical cross-validation of measured signals between independent pulsar sub-arrays. We demonstrate the equivalence of this technique's efficacy with the full pulsar-timing array likelihood, yet at a fraction of the required time. Our technique is fast, easily implemented, and trivially allows for new data and pulsars to be combined with legacy datasets without re-analysis of the latter.

arXiv comment14 pages, 6 figures. Matches version accepted by PRD

References in corpus (37)

• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Search For An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• The stochastic gravitational-wave background from massive black hole binary systems: implications for observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: First Data Release
• The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
• The NANOGrav 11-year Data Set: Pulsar-timing Constraints On The Stochastic Gravitational-wave Background
• Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves from Massive Black Hole Binaries: Predictions for LISA and Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The International Pulsar Timing Array second data release: Search for an isotropic Gravitational Wave Background
• On the evidence for a common-spectrum process in the search for the nanohertz gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: Second data release
• The Astrophysics of Nanohertz Gravitational Waves
• Common-red-signal analysis with 24-yr high-precision timing of the European Pulsar Timing Array: Inferences in the stochastic gravitational-wave background search
• Assessing the Role of Spin Noise in the Precision Timing of Millisecond Pulsars
• Optimal strategies for gravitational wave stochastic background searches in pulsar timing data
• The stochastic background: scaling laws and time to detection for pulsar timing arrays
• The NANOGrav 11-Year Data Set: Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• The NANOGrav 12.5 yr Data Set: Observations and Narrowband Timing of 47 Millisecond Pulsars
• Hyper-efficient model-independent Bayesian method for the analysis of pulsar timing data
• A study of spatial correlations in pulsar timing array data
• New advances in the Gaussian-process approach to pulsar-timing data analysis
• Astrophysics Milestones For Pulsar Timing Array Gravitational Wave Detection
• Resolving multiple supermassive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays
• Time-domain Implementation of the Optimal Cross-Correlation Statistic for Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background Searches in Pulsar Timing Data
• From Bright Binaries To Bumpy Backgrounds: Mapping Realistic Gravitational Wave Skies With Pulsar-Timing Arrays
• Massive black hole binary systems and the NANOGrav 12.5 year results
• Noise-marginalized optimal statistic: A robust hybrid frequentist-Bayesian statistic for the stochastic gravitational-wave background in pulsar timing arrays
• Systematic and Stochastic Variations in Pulsar Dispersion Measures
• Low-rank approximations for large stationary covariance matrices, as used in the Bayesian and generalized-least-squares analysis of pulsar-timing data
• Pulsar timing arrays as imaging gravitational wave telescopes: angular resolution and source (de)confusion
• Common-spectrum process versus cross-correlation for gravitational-wave searches using pulsar timing arrays
• Resolving multiple supermassive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays II: genetic algorithm implementation
• An Efficient Approximation to the Likelihood for Gravitational Wave Stochastic Background Detection Using Pulsar Timing Data
• Pulsar science with the CHIME telescope
• MeerTime - the MeerKAT Key Science Program on Pulsar Timing
• Observing Gravitational Radiation with QSO Proper Motions and the SKA
• On Frequency-Dependent Dispersion Measures and Extreme Scattering Events
• Bayesian cross validation for gravitational-wave searches in pulsar-timing array data

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Accurate characterization of the stochastic gravitational-wave background with pulsar timing arrays by likelihood reweighting
• Consistency of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Signal with a Nanohertz Gravitational-wave Background
• Gravitational Wave Statistics for Pulsar Timing Arrays: Examining Bias from Using a Finite Number of Pulsars
• Fast Bayesian analysis of individual binaries in pulsar timing array data