Pulsar timing arrays as imaging gravitational wave telescopes: angular resolution and source (de)confusion
read the original abstract
Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) will be sensitive to a finite number of gravitational wave (GW) "point" sources (e.g. supermassive black hole binaries). N quiet pulsars with accurately known distances d_{pulsar} can characterize up to 2N/7 distant chirping sources per frequency bin \Delta f_{gw}=1/T, and localize them with "diffraction limited" precision \delta\theta \gtrsim (1/SNR)(\lambda_{gw}/d_{pulsar}). Even if the pulsar distances are poorly known, a PTA with F frequency bins can still characterize up to (2N/7)[1-(1/2F)] sources per bin, and the quasi-singular pattern of timing residuals in the vicinity of a GW source still allows the source to be localized quasi-topologically within roughly the smallest quadrilateral of quiet pulsars that encircles it on the sky, down to a limiting resolution \delta\theta \gtrsim (1/SNR) \sqrt{\lambda_{gw}/d_{pulsar}}. PTAs may be unconfused, even at the lowest frequencies, with matched filtering always appropriate.
This paper has not been read by Pith yet.
Forward citations
Cited by 4 Pith papers
-
Testing General Relativity with Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
A framework is developed to test beyond-GR effects in nanohertz continuous waves from individual SMBHBs, deriving modified inter-pulsar correlations, antenna responses, and phase delays for three deviation classes, va...
-
Reaching diffraction-limited localization with coherent PTAs
Coherent map-making with pulsar distances in PTAs reaches diffraction-limited angular resolution of ~2 arcmin for GW sources at SNR=10 using roughly 9 pulsars.
-
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 prec...
-
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-...
discussion (0)
Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.