Signals of merging supermassive primordial black holes in pulsar timing arrays

Abstract

In this work we evaluate whether the gravitational wave background recently observed by a number of different pulsar timing arrays could be due to merging primordial supermassive black hole binaries. We find that for homogeneously distributed primordial black holes this possibility is inconsistent with strong cosmological and astrophysical constraints on their total abundance. If the distribution exhibits some clustering, however, the merger rate will, in general, be enhanced, opening the window for a consistent interpretation of the pulsar timing array data in terms of merging primordial black holes, if $\mu$-distortion constraints associated with the formation mechanism can be evaded.

9 pages, 3 figures, added "primordial" to title

References in corpus (41)

• Array Programming with NumPy
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Evidence for a Gravitational-Wave Background
• Search for an isotropic gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Searching for the nano-Hertz stochastic gravitational wave background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data Release I
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array III. Search for gravitational wave signals
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Search for Signals from New Physics
• 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 merger rate of primordial-black-hole binaries
• 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
• NANOGrav Hints to Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter
• Cosmic String Interpretation of NANOGrav Pulsar Timing Data
• Common-red-signal analysis with 24-yr high-precision timing of the European Pulsar Timing Array: Inferences in the stochastic gravitational-wave background search
• Has NANOGrav found first evidence for cosmic strings?
• Did NANOGrav see a signal from primordial black hole formation?
• Implications of the NANOGrav results for inflation
• Solar-Mass Primordial Black Holes Explain NANOGrav Hint of Gravitational Waves
• From NANOGrav to LIGO with metastable cosmic strings
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Gravitational Waves and Dark Radiation from Dark Phase Transition: Connecting NANOGrav Pulsar Timing Data and Hubble Tension
• NANOGrav Signal from the End of Inflation and the LIGO Mass and Heavier Primordial Black Holes
• Searching For Gravitational Waves From Cosmological Phase Transitions With The NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset
• Primordial gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz regime and PTA data -- towards solving the GW inverse problem
• Primordial black holes from strong first-order phase transitions
• Primordial black holes from scalar field evolution in the early universe
• Whispers from the dark side: Confronting light new physics with NANOGrav data
• The Need For Speed: Rapid Refitting Techniques for Bayesian Spectral Characterization of the Gravitational Wave Background Using PTAs
• Massive black hole binary systems and the NANOGrav 12.5 year results
• Massive black hole evolution models confronting the n-Hz amplitude of the stochastic gravitational wave background
• Searching for continuous Gravitational Waves in the second data release of the International Pulsar Timing Array
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array V. Search for continuous gravitational wave signals
• Multi-messenger Probes of Inflationary Fluctuations and Primordial Black Holes
• The long-short wavelength mode coupling tightens primordial black hole constraints
• Prospects for Future Binary Black Hole GW Studies in Light of PTA Measurements
• A quasar-based supermassive black hole binary population model: implications for the gravitational-wave background
• NANOGrav signal as mergers of Stupendously Large Primordial Black Holes
• Towards distinguishing Dirac from Majorana neutrino mass with gravitational waves
• The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Looking for Signs of Discreteness in the Gravitational-wave Background
• Eccentricity effects on the supermassive black hole gravitational wave background
• Predictions for LISA and PTA based on SHARK galaxy simulations

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Sub-GeV dark matter and nano-Hertz gravitational waves from a classically conformal dark sector
• Implications for Pulsar Timing Arrays of Sub-solar Black Hole Detections: From LVK to Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer
• Scalar-Induced Gravitational Waves in Palatini $f(R)$ Gravity