13–18 Dec 2015
International Conference Centre Geneva
Europe/Zurich timezone

Search for continuous gravitational wave in EPTA dataset

17 Dec 2015, 16:57
22m
Level 2, Room 13 (International Conference Centre Geneva)

Level 2, Room 13

International Conference Centre Geneva

17 Rue de Varembé, 1211 Geneva

Speaker

Dr Antoine Lassus (Max Planck Institute für Radioastronomie)

Description

We have searched for continuous gravitational wave (CGW) signals produced by individually resolvable, circular supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) in the latest EPTA dataset, which consists of ultra-precise timing data on 41 millisecond pulsars. Several algorithms have been used and depending on the adopted detection algorithm, the 95% upper limit on the sky-averaged strain amplitude lies in the range 6 x 10^-15 < A < 1.5 x 10^-14 at 5 nHz < f < 7 nHz. The most robust upper limit – obtained via a full Bayesian analysis searching simultaneously over the signal and pulsar noise on the subset of our six best pulsars – is A ~10^-14. These limits, the most stringent to date at f < 10 nHz, exclude the presence of sub-centiparsec binaries with chirp mass Mc > 10^9 solar masses out to a distance of about 25 Mpc, and with Mc > 10^10 solar masses out to a distance of about 1 Gpc (z~ 0.2).
Collaboration European Pulsar Timing Array

Primary author

Dr Antoine Lassus (Max Planck Institute für Radioastronomie)

Co-authors

Antoine Petiteau (Universite Paris-Diderot - CNRS) Stanislav Babak

Presentation materials

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