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Register a new userTime-domain Implementation of the Optimal Cross-Correlation Statistic for Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background Searches in Pulsar Timing Data
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Supermassive black hole binaries, cosmic strings, relic gravitational waves from inflation, and first order phase transitions in the early universe are expected to contribute to a stochastic background of gravitational waves in the 10^(-9) Hz-10^(-7) Hz frequency band. Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) exploit the high precision timing of radio pulsars to detect signals at such frequencies. Here we present a time-domain implementation of the optimal cross-correlation statistic for stochastic background searches in PTA data. Due to the irregular sampling typical of PTA data as well as the use of a timing model to predict the times-of-arrival of radio pulses, time-domain methods are better suited for gravitational wave data analysis of such data. We present a derivation of the optimal cross-correlation statistic starting from the likelihood function, a method to produce simulated stochastic background signals, and a rigorous derivation of the scaling laws for the signal-to-noise ratio of the cross-correlation statistic in the two relevant PTA regimes: the weak signal limit where instrumental noise dominates over the gravitational wave signal at all frequencies, and a second regime where the gravitational wave signal dominates at the lowest frequencies.
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Observations have revealed that nearly all galaxies contain supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers. When galaxies merge, these SMBHs form SMBH binaries (SMBHBs) that emit low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs). The incoherent superposition of these sources produce a stochastic GW background (GWB) that can be observed by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). The optimal statistic is a frequentist estimator of the amplitude of the GWB that specifically looks for the spatial correlations between pulsars induced by the GWB. In this paper, we introduce an improved method for computing the optimal statistic that marginalizes over the red noise in individual pulsars. We use simulations to demonstrate that this method more accurately determines the strength of the GWB, and we use the noise-marginalized optimal statistic to compare the significance of monopole, dipole, and Hellings-Downs (HD) spatial correlations and perform sky scrambles.
A low-frequency gravitational-wave background (GWB) from the cosmic merger history of supermassive black holes is expected to be detected in the next few years by pulsar timing arrays. A GWB induces distinctive correlations in the pulsar residuals --- the expected arrival time of the pulse less its actual arrival time. Simplifying assumptions are made in order to write an analytic expression for this correlation function, called the Hellings and Downs curve for an isotropic GWB, which depends on the angular separation of the pulsar pairs, the gravitational-wave frequency considered, and the distance to the pulsars. This is called the short-wavelength approximation, which we prove here rigorously and analytically for the first time.
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) has recently reported strong statistical evidence for a common-spectrum red-noise process for all pulsars, as seen in their 12.5-yr analysis for an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background. However, there is currently very little evidence for quadrupolar spatial correlations across the pulsars in the array, which is needed to make a confident claim of detection of a stochastic background. Here we give a frequentist analysis of a very simple signal+noise model showing that the current lack of evidence for spatial correlations is consistent with the magnitude of the correlation coefficients for pairs of Earth-pulsar baselines in the array, and the fact that pulsar timing arraysbare most-likely operating in the intermediate-signal regime. We derive analytic expressions that allow one to compare the expected values of the signal-to-noise ratios for both the common-spectrum and cross-correlation estimators.
We search for isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) in the International Pulsar Timing Array second data release. By modeling the SGWB as a power-law, we find very strong Bayesian evidence for a common-spectrum process, and further this process has scalar transverse (ST) correlations allowed in general metric theory of gravity as the Bayes factor in favor of the ST-correlated process versus the spatially uncorrelated common-spectrum process is $30pm 2$. The median and the $90%$ equal-tail amplitudes of ST mode are $mathcal{A}_{mathrm{ST}}= 1.29^{+0.51}_{-0.44} times 10^{-15}$, or equivalently the energy density parameter per logarithm frequency is $Omega_{mathrm{GW}}^{mathrm{ST}} = 2.31^{+2.19}_{-1.30} times 10^{-9}$, at frequency of 1/year. However, we do not find any statistically significant evidence for the tensor transverse (TT) mode and then place the $95%$ upper limits as $mathcal{A}_{mathrm{TT}}< 3.95 times 10^{-15}$, or equivalently $Omega_{mathrm{GW}}^{mathrm{TT}}< 2.16 times 10^{-9}$, at frequency of 1/year.
We search for an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB) in the newly released $11$-year dataset from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). While we find no significant evidence for a GWB, we place constraints on a GWB from a population of supermassive black-hole binaries, cosmic strings, and a primordial GWB. For the first time, we find that the GWB upper limits and detection statistics are sensitive to the Solar System ephemeris (SSE) model used, and that SSE errors can mimic a GWB signal. We developed an approach that bridges systematic SSE differences, producing the first PTA constraints that are robust against SSE uncertainties. We thus place a $95%$ upper limit on the GW strain amplitude of $A_mathrm{GWB}<1.45times 10^{-15}$ at a frequency of $f=1$ yr$^{-1}$ for a fiducial $f^{-2/3}$ power-law spectrum, and with inter-pulsar correlations modeled. This is a factor of $sim 2$ improvement over the NANOGrav $9$-year limit, calculated using the same procedure. Previous PTA upper limits on the GWB will need revision in light of SSE systematic uncertainties. We use our constraints to characterize the combined influence on the GWB of the stellar mass-density in galactic cores, the eccentricity of SMBH binaries, and SMBH--galactic-bulge scaling relationships. We constrain cosmic-string tension using recent simulations, yielding an SSE-marginalized $95%$ upper limit on the cosmic string tension of $Gmu < 5.3times 10^{-11}$---a factor of $sim 2$ better than the published NANOGrav $9$-year constraints. Our SSE-marginalized $95%$ upper limit on the energy density of a primordial GWB (for a radiation-dominated post-inflation Universe) is $Omega_mathrm{GWB}(f)h^2<3.4times10^{-10}$.
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