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Register a new userAstrophysics Milestones For Pulsar Timing Array Gravitational Wave Detection
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The NANOGrav Collaboration reported strong Bayesian evidence for a common-spectrum stochastic process in its 12.5-yr pulsar timing array dataset, with median characteristic strain amplitude at periods of a year of $A_{rm yr} = 1.92^{+0.75}_{-0.55} times 10^{-15}$. However, evidence for the quadrupolar Hellings & Downs interpulsar correlations, which are characteristic of gravitational wave signals, was not yet significant. We emulate and extend the NANOGrav dataset, injecting a wide range of stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB) signals that encompass a variety of amplitudes and spectral shapes, and quantify three key milestones: (I) Given the amplitude measured in the 12.5 yr analysis and assuming this signal is a GWB, we expect to accumulate robust evidence of an interpulsar-correlated GWB signal with 15--17 yrs of data, i.e., an additional 2--5 yrs from the 12.5 yr dataset; (II) At the initial detection, we expect a fractional uncertainty of $40%$ on the power-law strain spectrum slope, which is sufficient to distinguish a GWB of supermassive black-hole binary origin from some models predicting more exotic origins;(III) Similarly, the measured GWB amplitude will have an uncertainty of $44%$ upon initial detection, allowing us to arbitrate between some population models of supermassive black-hole binaries. In addition, power-law models are distinguishable from those having low-frequency spectral turnovers once 20~yrs of data are reached. Even though our study is based on the NANOGrav data, we also derive relations that allow for a generalization to other pulsar-timing array datasets. Most notably, by combining the data of individual arrays into the International Pulsar Timing Array, all of these milestones can be reached significantly earlier.
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We have begun an exciting era for gravitational wave detection, as several world-leading experiments are breaching the threshold of anticipated signal strengths. Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are pan-Galactic gravitational wave detectors that are already cutting into the expected strength of gravitational waves from cosmic strings and binary supermassive black holes in the nHz-$mu$Hz gravitational wave band. These limits are leading to constraints on the evolutionary state of the Universe. Here, we provide a broad review of this field, from how pulsars are used as tools for detection, to astrophysical sources of uncertainty in the signals PTAs aim to see, to the primary current challenge areas for PTA work. This review aims to provide an up-to-date reference point for new parties interested in the field of gravitational wave detection via pulsar timing.
A nanohertz-frequency stochastic gravitational-wave background can potentially be detected through the precise timing of an array of millisecond pulsars. This background produces low-frequency noise in the pulse arrival times that would have a characteristic spectrum common to all pulsars and a well-defined spatial correlation. Recently the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves collaboration (NANOGrav) found evidence for the common-spectrum component in their 12.5-year data set. Here we report on a search for the background using the second data release of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. If we are forced to choose between the two NANOGrav models $unicode{x2014}$ one with a common-spectrum process and one without $unicode{x2014}$ we find strong support for the common-spectrum process. However, in this paper, we consider the possibility that the analysis suffers from model misspecification. In particular, we present simulated data sets that contain noise with distinctive spectra but show strong evidence for a common-spectrum process under the standard assumptions. The Parkes data show no significant evidence for, or against, the spatially correlated Hellings-Downs signature of the gravitational-wave background. Assuming we did observe the process underlying the spatially uncorrelated component of the background, we infer its amplitude to be $A = 2.2^{+0.4}_{-0.3} times 10^{-15}$ in units of gravitational-wave strain at a frequency of $1, text{yr}^{-1}$. Extensions and combinations of existing and new data sets will improve the prospects of identifying spatial correlations that are necessary to claim a detection of the gravitational-wave background.
Gravitational wave (GW) searches using pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are assumed to be limited by the typical average observational cadence of $1/(2~{rm weeks})$ for a single pulsar to GW frequencies $lesssim 4times 10^{-7}$ Hz. We show that this assumption is incorrect and that a PTA can detect signals with much higher frequencies, which are preserved in the data due to aliasing, by exploiting asynchronous observations from multiple pulsars. This allows an observation strategy that is scalable to future large-scale PTAs containing $O(10^3)$ pulsars, enabled by the Five-hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope and the Square Kilometer Array, without requiring a higher per-pulsar observation cadence. We show that higher frequency GW observations, reaching up to $4times 10^{-4}$ Hz with an SKA-era PTA, have significant astrophysical implications, such as (i) a three orders of magnitude better constraint than current high-cadence observations on GW strain in the $[10,400]$ $mu{rm Hz}$ band, and (ii) sensitive tests of the no-hair theorem in the mass range of supermassive black hole binaries using their inspiral, merger, and ringdown signals.
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 $Omega_mathrm{GWB}(f)h^2<3.4times10^{-10}$.
We discuss the theory of pulsar-timing and astrometry probes of a stochastic gravitational-wave background with a recently developed total-angular-momentum (TAM) formalism for cosmological perturbations. We review the formalism, emphasizing in particular the features relevant for this work and describe the observables we consider (i.e. the pulsar redshift and stellar angular displacement). Using the TAM approach, we calculate the angular power spectra for the observables and from them derive angular auto- and cross-correlation functions. We provide the full set of power spectra and correlation functions not only for the standard transverse-traceless propagating degrees of freedom in general relativity, but also for the four additional non-Einsteinian polarizations that may arise in alternative-gravity theories. We discuss how pulsar-timing and astrometry surveys can complement and serve as cross checks to one another and comment on the importance of testing the chirality of the gravitational-wave background as a tool to understand the nature of its sources. A simple rederivation of the power spectra from the plane-wave formalism is provided in an Appendix.
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