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Pulsar timing analysis in the presence of correlated noise

3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

3 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Pulsar timing observations are usually analysed with least-square-fitting procedures under the assumption that the timing residuals are uncorrelated (statistically "white"). Pulsar observers are well aware that this assumption often breaks down and causes severe errors in estimating the parameters of the timing model and their uncertainties. Ad hoc methods for minimizing these errors have been developed, but we show that they are far from optimal. Compensation for temporal correlation can be done optimally if the covariance matrix of the residuals is known using a linear transformation that whitens both the residuals and the timing model. We adopt a transformation based on the Cholesky decomposition of the covariance matrix, but the transformation is not unique. We show how to estimate the covariance matrix with sufficient accuracy to optimize the pulsar timing analysis. We also show how to apply this procedure to estimate the spectrum of any time series with a steep red power-law spectrum, including those with irregular sampling and variable error bars, which are otherwise very difficult to analyse.

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years

2026 2 2025 1

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representative citing papers

Stochastic problems in pulsar timing

astro-ph.HE · 2026-04-09 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Analytical solutions to Langevin equations for red noise and GWB in pulsars show that an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck spin frequency model is inconsistent with stationary signals, while an overdamped oscillator model and a two-component neutron star model resolve nonstationarity through damped and diffusive e

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Showing 3 of 3 citing papers.

  • Finding Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers in Pulsar Timing Array Data astro-ph.HE · 2025-10-06 · conditional · none · ref 57 · internal anchor

    A complete SMBHB waveform model enables unified PTA searches for mergers and memory signals, with parameter recovery shown on simulated data for 10^8-10^10 solar mass systems.

  • The Heavy Tailed Non-Gaussianity of the Supermassive Black Hole Gravitational Wave Background astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-09 · unverdicted · none · ref 44

    The gravitational wave background from supermassive black hole binaries has a universal heavy-tailed amplitude distribution with power-law index -4, causing divergent higher moments and dominance of the strongest signals by few loud sources.

  • Stochastic problems in pulsar timing astro-ph.HE · 2026-04-09 · unverdicted · none · ref 48

    Analytical solutions to Langevin equations for red noise and GWB in pulsars show that an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck spin frequency model is inconsistent with stationary signals, while an overdamped oscillator model and a two-component neutron star model resolve nonstationarity through damped and diffusive e