Detecting nHz Gravitational Radiation using a Pulsar Timing Array

Detecting nHz Gravitational Radiation using a Pulsar Timing Array

Paul Demorest (NRAO), David Nice (Bryn Mawr), Ingrid Stairs (Univ. British Columbia), Scott Ransom (NRAO), Robsert Ferdman (Observatoire de Paris), Andrea Lommen (Franklin and Marshall), Don Backer (Univ. California - Berkeley), Marjorie Gonzalez (Univ. British Columbia)

KSPNANOGrav (North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves) is a multi-year project, which is seeking to detect gravitational waves using the GBT (and the Arecibo Radio Telescope). This is being done via the precise timing of a network of radio pulsars. Pulsar timing is sensitive to GR with periods comparable to the experiment duration (typically 1 to 10 years, or nanohertz frequencies). In this regime, the radiation is expected to be dominated by the stochastic background created by unresolved contributions from the ensemble of massive black hole (MBH) binaries throughout the universe.

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