The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
Reviewed by Pith T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 kernel pith:MKK5YPLLrecord.jsonopen to challenge →
read the original abstract
Pulsar timing array collaborations, such as the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), are seeking to detect nanohertz gravitational waves emitted by supermassive black hole binaries formed in the aftermath of galaxy mergers. We have searched for continuous waves from individual circular supermassive black hole binaries using the NANOGrav's recent 12.5-year data set. We created new methods to accurately model the uncertainties on pulsar distances in our analysis, and we implemented new techniques to account for a common red noise process in pulsar timing array data sets while searching for deterministic gravitational wave signals, including continuous waves. As we found no evidence for continuous waves in our data, we placed 95\% upper limits on the strain amplitude of continuous waves emitted by these sources. At our most sensitive frequency of 7.65 nanohertz, we placed a sky-averaged limit of $h_0 < $ $(6.82 \pm 0.35) \times 10^{-15}$, and $h_0 <$ $(2.66 \pm 0.15) \times 10^{-15}$ in our most sensitive sky location. Finally, we placed a multi-messenger limit of $\mathcal{M} <$ $(1.41 \pm 0.02) \times 10^9 M_\odot$ on the chirp mass of the supermassive black hole binary candidate 3C~66B.
This paper has not been read by Pith yet.
Forward citations
Cited by 3 Pith papers
-
Searching for a waveform-agnostic gravitational wave signal in pulsar timing arrays
Presents a new Fourier-expansion Bayesian hierarchical model with Lorentzian hyperprior for waveform-agnostic searches of nanohertz gravitational wave sources in pulsar timing array data.
-
Higher-order statistics of the stochastic gravitational wave background from supermassive black hole binaries
With a physically motivated z_min cutoff, higher-order moments of the SGWB from SMBH binaries depend on the mass function solely via <M^{10/3}>, giving a variance-to-mean ratio for <M^{10/3}>/<M^{5/3}> and a kurtosis-...
-
Constraints on Ultralight Scalar and Dark Photon Dark Matter from PPTA-DR3 and EPTA-DR2
Bayesian analysis of PPTA-DR3 and EPTA-DR2 finds no statistically significant ULDM signals and sets 95% CL upper limits on scalar and dark photon dark matter, improving prior bounds in most mass ranges.
discussion (0)
Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.