Using Pulsar Parameter Drifts to Detect Sub-Nanohertz Gravitational Waves

Abstract

Gravitational waves with frequencies below 1~nHz are notoriously difficult to detect. With periods exceeding current experimental lifetimes, they induce slow drifts in observables rather than periodic correlations. Observables with well-known intrinsic contributions provide a means to probe this regime. In this work, we demonstrate the viability of using observed pulsar timing parameters to discover such "ultralow" frequency gravitational waves, presenting two complementary observables for which the systematic shift induced by ultralow-frequency gravitational waves can be extracted. Using existing data for these parameters, we search the ultralow frequency regime for continuous-wave signals, finding a sensitivity near the expected prediction from inspirals of supermassive black holes. We do not see an excess in the data, setting a limit on the strain of $1.3\times 10^{-12}$ at $450\mathrm{pHz}$ with a sensitivity dropping approximately quadratically with frequency until $10\mathrm{pHz}$. Our search method opens a new frequency range for gravitational wave detection and has profound implications for astrophysics, cosmology, and particle physics.

arXiv comment20 pages, 4 figures, 4 appendices; v2: updated to match PRL

References in corpus (65)

• Planck 2018 results. X. Constraints on inflation
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Evidence for a Gravitational-Wave Background
• galpy: A Python Library for Galactic Dynamics
• Search for an isotropic gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Science Case for the Einstein Telescope
• Tests of general relativity from timing the double pulsar
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array III. Search for gravitational wave signals
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Search For An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Mass and Geometric Measurements of Binary Millisecond Pulsars
• Tempo2, a new pulsar timing package. II: The timing model and precision estimates
• The relativistic pulsar-white dwarf binary PSR J1738+0333 II. The most stringent test of scalar-tensor gravity
• High-precision timing of 42 millisecond pulsars with the European Pulsar Timing Array
• Upper Limits on the Isotropic Gravitational-Wave Background from Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's Third Observing Run
• Challenges and Opportunities of Gravitational Wave Searches at MHz to GHz Frequencies
• 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
• Common-red-signal analysis with 24-yr high-precision timing of the European Pulsar Timing Array: Inferences in the stochastic gravitational-wave background search
• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits on Continuous Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Gravitational Wave Detection with Atom Interferometry
• Detecting High-Frequency Gravitational Waves with Microwave Cavities
• Gas driven massive black hole binaries: signatures in the nHz gravitational wave background
• A Comprehensive Study of Relativistic Gravity using PSR B1534+12
• The NANOGrav 11-Year Data Set: Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Astrometric Effects of a Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• An all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array data set
• A novel search for high-frequency gravitational waves with low-mass axion haloscopes
• An astrometric search method for individually resolvable gravitational wave sources with Gaia
• Tests of Gravitational Symmetries with Pulsar Binary J1713+0747
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Wideband Timing of 47 Millisecond Pulsars
• Quasar Proper Motions and Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves
• Realistic sensitivity curves for pulsar timing arrays
• NANOGrav signal from MHD turbulence at QCD phase transition in the early universe
• The Parkes pulsar timing array second data release: Timing analysis
• Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from Global Cosmic Strings
• Searching for new physics with profile likelihoods: Wilks and beyond
• Bridging the $\mu$Hz gap in the gravitational-wave landscape with binary resonance
• Asteroids for $\mu$Hz gravitational-wave detection
• PSR J1024-0719: A Millisecond Pulsar in an Unusual Long-Period Orbit
• Ultra-low frequency gravitational waves from cosmological and astrophysical processes
• Can we observe the QCD phase transition-generated gravitational waves through pulsar timing arrays?
• Estimating the sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays
• Gravitational wave emission from binary supermassive black holes
• A measurement of the Galactic plane mass density from binary pulsar accelerations
• Gaia-like astrometry and gravitational waves
• Detecting stochastic gravitational waves with binary resonance
• Bridging the gap: spectral distortions meet gravitational waves
• A revisit of PSR J1909$-$3744 with 15-year high-precision timing
• Astrometric Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• A Massive-born Neutron Star with a Massive White Dwarf Companion
• Gravitational Wave Detection with Photometric Surveys
• A broadband radio study of the average profile and giant pulses from PSR B1821-24A
• Milky Way Accelerometry via Millisecond Pulsar Timing
• Binary Systems as Resonance Detectors for Gravitational Waves
• Millisecond and Binary Pulsars as Nature's Frequency Standards. II. Effects of Low-Frequency Timing Noise on Residuals and Measured Parameters
• High precision pulsar timing and spin frequency second derivatives
• Searching For Stochastic Gravitational Waves Below a Nanohertz
• Astrometric Gravitational-Wave Detection via Stellar Interferometry
• Millisecond and Binary Pulsars as Nature's Frequency Standards. III. Fourier Analysis and Spectral Sensitivity of Timing Observations to Low-Frequency Noise
• Single-Source Gravitational Wave Limits from the J1713+0747 24-hr Global Campaign
• Correlated timing noise and high precision pulsar timing: Measuring frequency second derivatives as an example
• Sensitivity of new detection method for ultra-low frequency gravitational waves with pulsar spin-down rate statistics
• Investigating ultra-long gravitational waves with measurements of pulsars rotational parameters
• Constraints on ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves with statistics of pulsar spin-down rates
• Constraints on ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves with statistics of pulsar spin-down rates II: Mann-Whitney U test
• Constraints on ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves from an eccentric supermassive black hole binary

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Charting the Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Sky with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Tomography of flavoured leptogenesis with primordial blue gravitational waves
• A Pulsar-Based Map of Galactic Acceleration
• First astrometric constraints on parity-violation in the gravitational wave background
• On Pulsar Timing Detection of Ultralight Vector Dark Matter
• Probing Picohertz Gravitational Waves with Pulsars
• Can we hear beats with pulsar timing arrays?
• Time-dependent deflection reconstruction: new technique to search for gravitational waves with the cosmic microwave background