Combined five-PTA dataset yields posterior on SGWB power-law amplitude and index consistent with nonzero signal but below 5-sigma significance, with reconstructed angular correlations matching the Hellings-Downs prediction.
Null stream analysis of Pulsar Timing Array data: localisation of resolvable gravitational wave sources
3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
abstract
Super-massive black hole binaries are expected to produce a GW signal in the nano-Hertz frequency band which may be detected by PTAs in the coming years. The signal is composed of both stochastic and individually resolvable components. Here we develop a generic Bayesian method for the analysis of resolvable sources based on the construction of `null-streams' which cancel the part of the signal held in common for each pulsar (the Earth-term). For an array of $N$ pulsars there are $N-2$ independent null-streams that cancel the GW signal from a particular sky location. This method is applied to the localisation of quasi-circular binaries undergoing adiabatic inspiral. We carry out a systematic investigation of the scaling of the localisation accuracy with signal strength and number of pulsars in the PTA. Additionally, we find that source sky localisation with the International PTA data release one is vastly superior than what is achieved by its constituent regional PTAs.
years
2025 3representative citing papers
Simulations of continuous-wave searches show that PTA data first constrain GW frequency and strain amplitude together, then sky location, with chirp mass and inclination following later for evolving sources, with precision depending on source frequency and sky position.
Simulations of PTA data show that a full gravitational-wave signal template achieves the highest Bayes factors and most robust parameter estimation for individual supermassive black hole binaries compared to an Earth-term template and a novel Spike Pixel cross-correlation model.
citing papers explorer
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Stochastic gravitational-wave background search using data from five pulsar timing arrays
Combined five-PTA dataset yields posterior on SGWB power-law amplitude and index consistent with nonzero signal but below 5-sigma significance, with reconstructed angular correlations matching the Hellings-Downs prediction.
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Expectations for the first supermassive black-hole binary resolved by PTAs II: Milestones for binary characterization
Simulations of continuous-wave searches show that PTA data first constrain GW frequency and strain amplitude together, then sky location, with chirp mass and inclination following later for evolving sources, with precision depending on source frequency and sky position.
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Expectations for the first supermassive black-hole binary resolved by PTAs I: Model efficacy
Simulations of PTA data show that a full gravitational-wave signal template achieves the highest Bayes factors and most robust parameter estimation for individual supermassive black hole binaries compared to an Earth-term template and a novel Spike Pixel cross-correlation model.