Astrophysics Milestones for Pulsar Timing Array Gravitational-wave Detection
by
Nihan Pol
→
Europe/Zurich
zoom only (CERN)
zoom only
CERN
Description
All of the three established pulsar timing arrays (NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA), along with international pulsar timing array (IPTA) have now reported strong Bayesian evidence for a common-spectrum stochastic process in their latest data sets, with broad agreement in the recovered spectral characteristics of this process. However, evidence for the quadrupolar Hellings & Downs interpulsar correlations, which are characteristic of gravitational-wave signals, is not yet significant in any of these datasets.
In this talk, I will review these results, and describe and quantify, through realistic simulations, the key milestones that pulsar timing arrays can be expected to achieve in the next few years.