Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2020
Volume 65, Number 2
Saturday–Tuesday, April 18–21, 2020; Washington D.C.
Session H15: Gravitational Wave Observations with Pulsar Timing ArraysOn Demand
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Sponsoring Units: DGRAV DAP Chair: Xavier Siemens, Oregon State University Room: Virginia B |
Sunday, April 19, 2020 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
H15.00001: The First 10 Years Of PTA Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Astronomy Stephen Taylor, Joseph Simon, Nihan Pol Pulsar-timing Arrays (PTAs) such as NANOGrav (the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves) are expected to make a detection of the nanohertz stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB) from a population of supermassive black-hole binaries (SMBHBS) within the next 3 - 7 years. This detection relies on the long-timescale monitoring of many millisecond pulsars to register the distinctive quadrupolar Hellings & Downs spatial correlation signature. Given these estimates of the timeline to detection, the next step is to understand the scientific milestones that we will pass along the way to detection and beyond. We ask how long it will be until we can constrain features in the GWB strain spectrum. We forecast PTAs several decades beyond the present under different observing strategies, and investigate how well we can infer the shape and properties of the GWB spectrum, linking these properties to the astrophysics of the source population. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 19, 2020 10:57AM - 11:09AM On Demand |
H15.00002: NANOGrav: Characterizing and Mitigating Noise in the Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) Detector Dan Stinebring The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration is working towards the detection and study of low-frequency gravitational waves using an array of rapidly rotating, highly stable radio pulsars distributed across the Galaxy. We measure the times of arrival of pulses from these accurate and precise pulsar clocks and compare them with a model that includes: the rotational motion of the pulsar, orbital motions, time-variable interstellar propagation delays; random timing noise from the pulsars themselves; and a correlated GW signal. Characterizing the many noise processes within our data is paramount for a robust gravitational wave detection and future characterization of these sources. We will highlight work being done within the NANOGrav collaboration to understand correlated (red) and uncorrelated (white) noise processes in the detector. Since time-variable propagation delays in the interstellar medium depend on the path between the Earth and the pulsar, and since several other noise processes are pulsar dependent, full detector noise characterization requires an appropriately weighted sum of noise along each of the baselines, as we will emphasize. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 19, 2020 11:09AM - 11:21AM On Demand |
H15.00003: Predicting the Sensitivity of NANOGrav into the Next Decades Jeffrey Hazboun The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) is a pulsar timing array collaboration working to detect the stochastic background of gravitational waves (GWs) from super massive binary black holes (SMBBHs). In order to robustly predict our PTA's evolving sensitivity various astrophysical details of the galactic millisecond pulsar population are needed, as well as a detailed understanding of how those characteristics combine in our gravitational wave analysis. Here we discuss the work needed to accurately predict the sensitivity of NANOGrav to GWs from SMBBHs into the next decades using sophisticated simulation pipelines. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 19, 2020 11:21AM - 11:33AM On Demand |
H15.00004: Sensitivity of Present and Future Black Hole Binary Observations Across the Gravitational Wave Spectrum Andrew Kaiser We present a tool for modelling the sensitivities of current and future generations of gravitational wave detectors across the entire gravitational-wave spectrum of coalescing black hole binaries. We provide methods to generate sensitivity curves for pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) using a novel realistic PTA sensitivity curve generator, space-based interferometers using adaptive models that can represent a wide range of proposed detector designs, and ground-based interferometers using current, second, and third generation designs. To model the signal from black hole binaries at any mass scale, we use phenomenological waveforms capable of modelling the inspiral, merger, and ringdown for sources with varying mass ratios and spins. Using this adaptable framework, we produce signal-to-noise ratios for the combination of any modelled parameter, associated with either the detector or the source. By allowing variation across each detector and source parameter, we can pinpoint the most important factors to determining the optimal performance for particular instrument designs. The adaptability of our detector and signal models can easily be extended to new detector designs and other models of gravitational wave signals. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 19, 2020 11:33AM - 11:45AM On Demand |
H15.00005: Joint search for isolated sources and an unresolved confusion background in pulsar timing array data Bence Becsy, Neil Cornish Supermassive black hole binaries are the most promising source of gravitational-waves in the frequency band accessible to pulsar timing arrays. Most of these binaries will be too distant to detect individually, but together they will form an approximately stochastic background that can be detected by measuring the correlation pattern induced between pairs of pulsars. A small number of nearby and especially massive systems may stand out from this background and be detected individually. Analyses have previously been developed to search for stochastic signals and isolated signals separately. Here we present \texttt{BayesHopper}, an algorithm capable of jointly searching for both signal components simultaneously using trans-dimensional Bayesian inference. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 19, 2020 11:45AM - 11:57AM Not Participating |
H15.00006: Searching for Eccentric SMBHB Signals in NANOGrav Belinda Cheeseboro, Sarah Burke-Spolaor Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHB) are one of several gravitational wave sources that could be detected by pulsar timing arrays like the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves (NANOGrav). In the past, the calculation of gravitational waveforms for eccentric supermassive black hole binaries was prohibitively computationally expensive as compared to the circular case. Thus, only circularized binaries have been considered in past all-sky GW searches. Recent algorithmic development has optimized the eccentric waveform search process. With that new framework, we are now developing an all-sky search pipeline for eccentric supermassive black hole binaries in pre-existing NANOGrav data. We will present preliminary results from this search. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 19, 2020 11:57AM - 12:09PM On Demand |
H15.00007: Supermassive Black-Hole Binary Candidates in the Gravitational-Wave Regime from the Dark Energy Survey A. Miguel Holgado, Yu-Ching Chen, Xin Liu, Wei-Ting Liao, Hengxiao Guo, Yue Shen, Kaiwen Zhang, Robert Gruendl, Eric Morganson The cosmic supermassive black-hole (SMBH) binary population is the main contributor to the stochastic nanohertz gravitational-wave background that pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) seek to detect. In the electromagnetic window, time-domain surveys have been systematically searching for such gravitational-wave driven SMBH binaries that may reside in periodic quasars. We present new SMBH binary candidates from the Dark Energy Survey that show statistically significant periodicity in their multi-band light curves. With these candidates, we test models of circumbinary accretion variability and relativistic Doppler-boosting. We also investigate gravitational-wave implications for PTAs, like the NANOGrav PTA, and for the LISA mission. [Preview Abstract] |
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