Searching For Stochastic Gravitational Waves Below a Nanohertz

Abstract

The stochastic gravitational-wave background is imprinted on the times of arrival of radio pulses from millisecond pulsars. Traditional pulsar timing analyses fit a timing model to each pulsar and search the residuals of the fit for a stationary time correlation. This method breaks down at gravitational-wave frequencies below the inverse observation time of the array; therefore, existing analyses restrict their searches to frequencies above 1 nHz. An effective method to overcome this challenge is to study the correlation of secular drifts of parameters in the pulsar timing model itself. In this paper, we show that timing model correlations are sensitive to sub-nanohertz stochastic gravitational waves and perform a search using existing measurements of pulsar spin-decelerations and pulsar binary orbital decay rates. We do not observe a signal at our present sensitivity, constraining the stochastic gravitational-wave relic energy density to ${\Omega }_{\text{GW}}(f)<3.8\times 10^{-9}$ at 450~pHz with sensitivity which scales as the frequency squared until approximately 10 pHz. We place additional limits on the amplitude of a power-law spectrum of $A_{\star }\lesssim 1.8\times 10^{-14}$ for a reference frequency of $f_{\ast }=1{\mathrm{year}}^{-1}$ and the spectral index expected from supermassive black hole binaries, $\gamma =13/3$. If detection of a supermassive black hole binary signal above 1 nHz is confirmed, this search method will serve as a critical complementary probe of the dynamics of galaxy evolution.

arXiv comment14 pages, 2 figures; v2: updated to match Phys. Rev. D version

References in corpus (75)

• 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
• The relativistic pulsar-white dwarf binary PSR J1738+0333 II. The most stringent test of scalar-tensor gravity
• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits On An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• Detection methods for stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds: a unified treatment
• Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations
• 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
• The NANOGrav 11-year Data Set: Pulsar-timing Constraints On The Stochastic Gravitational-wave Background
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the Gravitational Wave Background
• 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
• Optimal strategies for gravitational wave stochastic background searches in pulsar timing data
• Efficient Merger of Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Merging Galaxies
• Measurement and correction of variations in interstellar dispersion in high-precision pulsar timing
• TempoNest: A Bayesian approach to pulsar timing analysis
• Gravitational Wave Detection with Atom Interferometry
• Fast coalescence of massive black hole binaries from mergers of galactic nuclei: implications for low-frequency gravitational-wave astrophysics
• Detecting High-Frequency Gravitational Waves with Microwave Cavities
• The final-parsec problem in the collisionless limit
• A Comprehensive Study of Relativistic Gravity using PSR B1534+12
• Astrometric Effects of a Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• 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
• The Final Parsec Problem
• Quasar Proper Motions and Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves
• Collisionless loss-cone refilling: there is no final parsec problem
• Gravitational Radiation and Very Long Baseline Interferometry
• Realistic sensitivity curves for pulsar timing arrays
• Constraining the Solution to the Last Parsec Problem with Pulsar Timing
• The Indian Pulsar Timing Array: First data release
• 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
• A semi-analytic dynamical friction model for cored galaxies
• Constraints On The Dynamical Environments Of Supermassive Black-hole Binaries Using Pulsar-timing Arrays
• 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
• Can we observe the QCD phase transition-generated gravitational waves through pulsar timing arrays?
• Ultra-low frequency gravitational waves from cosmological and astrophysical processes
• Primordial Black Hole Archaeology with Gravitational Waves from Cosmic Strings
• Eccentricity evolution of massive black hole binaries from formation to coalescence
• 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
• The effect of small inter-pulsar distance variations in stochastic gravitational wave background searches with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• 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
• Dark Matter and Gravity Waves from a Dark Big Bang
• Gravitational Wave Detection with Photometric Surveys
• A broadband radio study of the average profile and giant pulses from PSR B1821-24A
• Supermassive black holes coalescence mediated by massive perturbers: implications for gravitational waves emission and nuclear cluster formation
• Milky Way Accelerometry via Millisecond Pulsar Timing
• Stochastic gravitational wave background constraints from Gaia DR3 astrometry
• Millisecond and Binary Pulsars as Nature's Frequency Standards. II. Effects of Low-Frequency Timing Noise on Residuals and Measured Parameters
• Millisecond and Binary Pulsars as Nature's Frequency Standards. III. Fourier Analysis and Spectral Sensitivity of Timing Observations to Low-Frequency Noise
• Discovering new forces with gravitational waves from supermassive black holes
• 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 (9)

• Have pulsar timing array methods detected a cosmological phase transition?
• Astrophysical neutrino oscillations after pulsar timing array analyses
• Using Pulsar Parameter Drifts to Detect Sub-Nanohertz Gravitational Waves
• 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
• Probing the Origin of Primordial Black Holes through Novel Gravitational Wave Spectrum
• First astrometric constraints on parity-violation in the gravitational wave background
• Identifying the Quadrupolar Nature of Gravitational Wave Background through Space-based Missions