The NANOGrav 15-Year Data Set: Detector Characterization and Noise Budget

Abstract

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are galactic-scale gravitational wave detectors. Each individual arm, composed of a millisecond pulsar, a radio telescope, and a kiloparsecs-long path, differs in its properties but, in aggregate, can be used to extract low-frequency gravitational wave (GW) signals. We present a noise and sensitivity analysis to accompany the NANOGrav 15-year data release and associated papers, along with an in-depth introduction to PTA noise models. As a first step in our analysis, we characterize each individual pulsar data set with three types of white noise parameters and two red noise parameters. These parameters, along with the timing model and, particularly, a piecewise-constant model for the time-variable dispersion measure, determine the sensitivity curve over the low-frequency GW band we are searching. We tabulate information for all of the pulsars in this data release and present some representative sensitivity curves. We then combine the individual pulsar sensitivities using a signal-to-noise-ratio statistic to calculate the global sensitivity of the PTA to a stochastic background of GWs, obtaining a minimum noise characteristic strain of $7\times 10^{-15}$ at 5 nHz. A power law-integrated analysis shows rough agreement with the amplitudes recovered in NANOGrav's 15-year GW background analysis. While our phenomenological noise model does not model all known physical effects explicitly, it provides an accurate characterization of the noise in the data while preserving sensitivity to multiple classes of GW signals.

67 pages, 73 figures, 3 tables; published in Astrophysical Journal Letters as part of Focus on NANOGrav's 15-year Data Set and the Gravitational Wave Background. For questions or comments, please email [email protected]

References in corpus (50)

• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Evidence for a Gravitational-Wave Background
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Search For An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• Tempo2, a new pulsar timing package. II: The timing model and precision estimates
• Switched magnetospheric regulation of pulsar spin-down
• A periodically active pulsar giving insight into magnetospheric physics
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Observations and Timing of 68 Millisecond Pulsars
• 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
• Assessing the Role of Spin Noise in the Precision Timing of Millisecond Pulsars
• Expected properties of the first gravitational wave signal detected with pulsar timing arrays
• On measuring the gravitational-wave background using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• PINT: A Modern Software Package for Pulsar Timing
• Limitations in timing precision due to single-pulse shape variability in millisecond pulsars
• New advances in the Gaussian-process approach to pulsar-timing data analysis
• Astrophysics Milestones For Pulsar Timing Array Gravitational Wave Detection
• Identifying and mitigating noise sources in precision pulsar timing data sets
• The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: First Data Release
• Time-domain Implementation of the Optimal Cross-Correlation Statistic for Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background Searches in Pulsar Timing Data
• A pulsar-based timescale from the International Pulsar Timing Array
• The NANOGrav Nine-Year Data Set: Excess Noise in Millisecond Pulsar Arrival Times
• The CHIME Pulsar Project: System Overview
• The Indian Pulsar Timing Array: First data release
• Measuring pulse times of arrival from broadband pulsar observations
• Searching for continuous Gravitational Waves in the second data release of the International Pulsar Timing Array
• The UTMOST pulsar timing programme II: Timing noise across the pulsar population
• The disturbance of a millisecond pulsar magnetosphere
• The impact of Solar wind variability on pulsar timing
• Measurements of pulse jitter and single-pulse variability in millisecond pulsars using MeerKAT
• Noise analysis in the European Pulsar Timing Array data release 2 and its implications on the gravitational-wave background search
• A 24-Hour Global Campaign To Assess Precision Timing of the Millisecond Pulsar J1713+0747
• On the usefulness of existing Solar-wind models for pulsar timing corrections
• Dispersion measure variability for 36 millisecond pulsars at 150MHz with LOFAR
• Variability, polarimetry, and timing properties of single pulses from PSR J1713+0747 using the Large European Array for Pulsars
• Evidence for profile changes in PSR J1713+0747 using the uGMRT
• Pulsar Timing Errors from Asynchronous Multi-Frequency Sampling of Dispersion Measure Variations
• Model Dependence of Bayesian Gravitational-Wave Background Statistics for Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomer
• Quality over Quantity: Optimizing pulsar timing array analysis for stochastic and continuous gravitational wave signals
• Bayesian Solar Wind Modeling with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Millisecond Pulsar Scintillation Studies with LOFAR: Initial Results
• Disentangling Multiple Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background Sources in PTA Datasets
• Deconvolving Pulsar Signals with Cyclic Spectroscopy: A Systematic Evaluation
• Profile changes associated with DM events in PSR J1713+0747
• A single pulse study of a millisecond pulsar PSR J0621+1002
• Plasma lensing near the eclipses of the Black Widow pulsar B1957+20
• Analysis of Multi-Hour Continuous Observations of Seven Millisecond Pulsars
• A Study in Frequency-Dependent Effects on Precision Pulsar Timing Parameters with the Pulsar Signal Simulator
• Scattering Delay Mitigation in High Accuracy Pulsar Timing: Cyclic Spectroscopy Techniques
• An unusual pulse shape change event in PSR J1713+0747 observed with the Green Bank Telescope and CHIME

Cited by in corpus (76)

• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Evidence for a Gravitational-Wave Background
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Search for Signals from New Physics
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the Gravitational Wave Background
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Observations and Timing of 68 Millisecond Pulsars
• Inflationary interpretation of the stochastic gravitational wave background signal detected by pulsar timing array experiments
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• First-order Phase Transition interpretation of PTA signal produces solar-mass Black Holes
• The Need For Speed: Rapid Refitting Techniques for Bayesian Spectral Characterization of the Gravitational Wave Background Using PTAs
• Have pulsar timing array methods detected a cosmological phase transition?
• The neutron star mass, distance, and inclination from precision timing of the brilliant millisecond pulsar J0437$-$4715
• Single field inflation in the light of Pulsar Timing Array Data: Quintessential interpretation of blue tilted tensor spectrum through Non-Bunch Davies initial condition
• Scalar induced gravity waves from ultra slow-roll Galileon inflation
• NANOGrav signal from axion inflation
• The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: The $4.5$-year data release and the noise and stochastic signals of the millisecond pulsar population
• The NANOGrav 15-year Gravitational-Wave Background Methods
• Probing The Early Universe Cosmology With NANOGrav: Possibilities and Limitations
• Primordial non-Gaussianity as a saviour for PBH overproduction in SIGWs generated by Pulsar Timing Arrays for Galileon inflation
• Realisation of the ultra-slow roll phase in Galileon inflation and PBH overproduction
• Towards distinguishing Dirac from Majorana neutrino mass with gravitational waves
• From quantum gravity to gravitational waves through cosmic strings
• Testing Realistic $SO(10)$ SUSY GUTs with Proton Decay and Gravitational Waves
• Large fluctuations and Primordial Black Holes
• Electromagnetic signatures from accreting massive black hole binaries in time domain photometric surveys
• Dissecting the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with Astrometry
• Obviating PBH overproduction for SIGWs generated by Pulsar Timing Arrays in loop corrected EFT of bounce
• Emission signatures from sub-pc Post-Newtonian binaries embedded in circumbinary discs
• Constraints on the velocity of gravitational waves from NANOGrav 15-year data set
• Status Report on Global Pulsar-Timing-Array Efforts to Detect Gravitational Waves
• Astrophysical neutrino oscillations after pulsar timing array analyses
• The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Looking for Signs of Discreteness in the Gravitational-wave Background
• Constraining the PG 1553+113 binary hypothesis: interpreting hints of a new, 22-year period
• 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
• How to Detect an Astrophysical Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Background
• Pulsar Timing Arrays require hierarchical models
• Primordial black holes generated by fast-roll mechanism in non-canonical natural inflation
• Regularized-Renormalized-Resummed loop corrected power spectrum of non-singular bounce with Primordial Black Hole formation
• Measuring kinematic anisotropies with pulsar timing arrays
• On the behaviour of eccentric sub-pc massive black hole binaries embedded in massive discs
• Evolution of a black hole cluster in full general relativity
• Gravitational Waves from Phase Transitions
• Primordial Black Holes from Effective Field Theory of Stochastic Single Field Inflation at NNNLO
• The Green Bank North Celestial Cap Survey IX: Timing Follow-up for 128 Pulsars
• Systematic errors in searches for nanohertz gravitational waves
• Neural Networks unveiling the properties of gravitational wave background from massive black hole binaries
• Negative non-Gaussianity as a salvager for PBHs with PTAs in bounce
• Ensemble noise properties of the European Pulsar Timing Array
• A Cyclic Spectroscopy Scintillation Study of PSR B1937+21 I. Demonstration of Improved Scintillometry
• Thermodynamical uncertainties for primordial black holes from cosmological phase transitions
• Efficient Bayesian inference and model selection for continuous gravitational waves in pulsar timing array data
• Realistic consecutive galaxy mergers form eccentric PTA sources
• Astrometry meets Pulsar Timing Arrays: Synergies for Gravitational Wave Detection
• Choosing suitable noise models for nanohertz gravitational-wave astrophysics
• The NANOGrav 12.5-Year Data Set: Probing Interstellar Turbulence and Precision Pulsar Timing with PSR J1903+0327
• The Chinese Pulsar Timing Array data release I. Single pulsar noise analysis
• Primordial black holes in SB SUSY Gauss-Bonnet inflation
• Implications for Pulsar Timing Arrays of Sub-solar Black Hole Detections: From LVK to Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer
• Bayesian pulsar timing and noise analysis with Vela.jl: an overview
• Impact of the observation frequency coverage on the significance of a gravitational wave background detection in PTA data
• Pulsar Polarization Array Limits on Ultralight Axion-like Dark Matter
• The NANOGrav 15 yr data set: Posterior predictive checks for gravitational-wave detection with pulsar timing arrays
• Primordial black holes and scalar-induced gravitational waves from the polynomial attractor model
• Rapid Construction of Joint Pulsar Timing Array Datasets: The Lite Method
• Reconstructing inflationary potential from NANOGrav 15-year Data: A robust study using Non-Bunch Davies initial condition
• An SZ-Like Effect on Cosmological Gravitational Wave Backgrounds
• Probing magneto-ionic microstructure towards the Vela pulsar using a prototype SKA-Low station
• Pulsar Cyclic Spectroscopy in the Partial-Deconvolution Regime: Benefits & Limitations
• Probing Picohertz Gravitational Waves with Pulsars
• Efficient prescription to search for linear gravitational wave memory from hyperbolic black hole encounters and its application to the NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset
• The Indian Pulsar Timing Array Data Release 2: II. Customised Single-Pulsar Noise Analysis and Noise Budget
• Rapid inference for individual binaries and a stochastic background with pulsar timing array data
• High-Redshift Merger Model for Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Background
• Elastic Scattering of Cosmological Gravitational Wave Backgrounds: Primordial Black Holes and Stellar Objects
• The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Customized Chromatic Noise Models
• Upper limits on microhertz gravitational waves from supermassive black-hole binaries using PSR J1909-3744 data from the second IPTA data release
• Graph-based Summary Statistics for Revealing the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background in Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Physics beyond the Standard Model with the DSA-2000