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Main Authors: Nay, Jonathan, Boddy, Kimberly K., Smith, Tristan L., Mingarelli, Chiara M. F.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.06168
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author Nay, Jonathan
Boddy, Kimberly K.
Smith, Tristan L.
Mingarelli, Chiara M. F.
author_facet Nay, Jonathan
Boddy, Kimberly K.
Smith, Tristan L.
Mingarelli, Chiara M. F.
contents We investigate the use of harmonic analysis techniques to perform measurements of the angular power spectrum on mock pulsar timing data for an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) with a dimensionless strain amplitude $A_{\text{gw}}=2 \times 10^{-15}$ and spectral index $γ_{\text{gw}}=13/3$. We examine the sensitivity of our harmonic analysis to the number of pulsars (50, 100, and 150) and length of pulsar observation time (10, 20, and 30 years) for an isotropic distribution of pulsars. We account for intrinsic pulsar red noise and use an average value of white noise of ~100 ns. We are able to detect the quadrupole for all our mock harmonic analyses, and for the analysis with 150 pulsars observed for 30 years, we are able to detect up to the $\ell = 5$ multipole. We provide scaling laws for the SGWB amplitude, the quadrupole, and $\ell = 3$ as a function of pulsar observation time and as a function of number of pulsars. We estimate the sensitivity of our harmonic approach to deviations of general relativity that produce subluminal gravitational wave propagation speeds.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_06168
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Harmonic analysis for pulsar timing arrays
Nay, Jonathan
Boddy, Kimberly K.
Smith, Tristan L.
Mingarelli, Chiara M. F.
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We investigate the use of harmonic analysis techniques to perform measurements of the angular power spectrum on mock pulsar timing data for an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) with a dimensionless strain amplitude $A_{\text{gw}}=2 \times 10^{-15}$ and spectral index $γ_{\text{gw}}=13/3$. We examine the sensitivity of our harmonic analysis to the number of pulsars (50, 100, and 150) and length of pulsar observation time (10, 20, and 30 years) for an isotropic distribution of pulsars. We account for intrinsic pulsar red noise and use an average value of white noise of ~100 ns. We are able to detect the quadrupole for all our mock harmonic analyses, and for the analysis with 150 pulsars observed for 30 years, we are able to detect up to the $\ell = 5$ multipole. We provide scaling laws for the SGWB amplitude, the quadrupole, and $\ell = 3$ as a function of pulsar observation time and as a function of number of pulsars. We estimate the sensitivity of our harmonic approach to deviations of general relativity that produce subluminal gravitational wave propagation speeds.
title Harmonic analysis for pulsar timing arrays
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.06168