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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2024
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.13472 |
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| _version_ | 1866912127941345280 |
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| author | Agazie, Gabriella Baier, Jeremy G. Baker, Paul T. Becsy, Bence Blecha, Laura Boddy, Kimberly K. Brazier, Adam Brook, Paul R. Burke-Spolaor, Sarah Burnette, Rand Casey-Clyde, J. Andrew Charisi, Maria Chatterjee, Shami Cohen, Tyler Cordes, James M. Cornish, Neil J. Crawford, Fronefield Cromartie, H. Thankful DeCesar, Megan E. Demorest, Paul B. Deng, Heling Dey, Lankeswar Dolch, Timothy Ferrara, Elizabeth C. Fiore, William Fonseca, Emmanuel Freedman, Gabriel E. Gardiner, Emiko C. Gersbach, Kyle A. Glaser, Joseph Good, Deborah C. Gultekin, Kayhan Hazboun, Jeffrey S. Jennings, Ross J. Johnson, Aaron D. Kaplan, David L. Kelley, Luke Zoltan Key, Joey S. Laal, Nima Lam, Michael T. Lamb, William G. Larsen, Bjorn Lazio, T. Joseph W. Lewandowska, Natalia Liu, Tingting Luo, Jing Lynch, Ryan S. Ma, Chung-Pei Madison, Dustin R. McEwen, Alexander McKee, James W. McLaughlin, Maura A. Meyers, Patrick M. Mingarelli, Chiara M. F. Mitridate, Andrea Nay, Jonathan Nice, David J. Ocker, Stella Koch Olum, Ken D. Pennucci, Timothy T. Petrov, Polina Pol, Nihan S. Radovan, Henri A. Ransom, Scott M. Ray, Paul S. Runnoe, Jessie C. Saffer, Alexander Sardesai, Shashwat C. Schmitz, Kai Siemens, Xavier Simon, Joseph Siwek, Magdalena S. Smith, Tristan L. Fiscella, Sophia V. Sosa Stairs, Ingrid H. Stinebring, Daniel R. Susobhanan, Abhimanyu Swiggum, Joseph K. Taylor, Jacob Taylor, Stephen R. Turner, Jacob E. Unal, Caner Vallisneri, Michele van Haasteren, Rutger Verbiest, Joris Vigeland, Sarah J. Witt, Caitlin A. Wright, David Young, Olivia |
| author_facet | Agazie, Gabriella Baier, Jeremy G. Baker, Paul T. Becsy, Bence Blecha, Laura Boddy, Kimberly K. Brazier, Adam Brook, Paul R. Burke-Spolaor, Sarah Burnette, Rand Casey-Clyde, J. Andrew Charisi, Maria Chatterjee, Shami Cohen, Tyler Cordes, James M. Cornish, Neil J. Crawford, Fronefield Cromartie, H. Thankful DeCesar, Megan E. Demorest, Paul B. Deng, Heling Dey, Lankeswar Dolch, Timothy Ferrara, Elizabeth C. Fiore, William Fonseca, Emmanuel Freedman, Gabriel E. Gardiner, Emiko C. Gersbach, Kyle A. Glaser, Joseph Good, Deborah C. Gultekin, Kayhan Hazboun, Jeffrey S. Jennings, Ross J. Johnson, Aaron D. Kaplan, David L. Kelley, Luke Zoltan Key, Joey S. Laal, Nima Lam, Michael T. Lamb, William G. Larsen, Bjorn Lazio, T. Joseph W. Lewandowska, Natalia Liu, Tingting Luo, Jing Lynch, Ryan S. Ma, Chung-Pei Madison, Dustin R. McEwen, Alexander McKee, James W. McLaughlin, Maura A. Meyers, Patrick M. Mingarelli, Chiara M. F. Mitridate, Andrea Nay, Jonathan Nice, David J. Ocker, Stella Koch Olum, Ken D. Pennucci, Timothy T. Petrov, Polina Pol, Nihan S. Radovan, Henri A. Ransom, Scott M. Ray, Paul S. Runnoe, Jessie C. Saffer, Alexander Sardesai, Shashwat C. Schmitz, Kai Siemens, Xavier Simon, Joseph Siwek, Magdalena S. Smith, Tristan L. Fiscella, Sophia V. Sosa Stairs, Ingrid H. Stinebring, Daniel R. Susobhanan, Abhimanyu Swiggum, Joseph K. Taylor, Jacob Taylor, Stephen R. Turner, Jacob E. Unal, Caner Vallisneri, Michele van Haasteren, Rutger Verbiest, Joris Vigeland, Sarah J. Witt, Caitlin A. Wright, David Young, Olivia |
| contents | Pulsar timing array observations have found evidence for an isotropic gravitational wave background with the Hellings-Downs angular correlations, expected from general relativity. This interpretation hinges on the measured shape of the angular correlations, which is predominately quadrupolar under general relativity. Here we explore a more flexible parameterization: we expand the angular correlations into a sum of Legendre polynomials and use a Bayesian analysis to constrain their coefficients with the 15-year pulsar timing data set collected by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). When including Legendre polynomials with multipoles $\ell \geq 2$, we only find a significant signal in the quadrupole with an amplitude consistent with general relativity and non-zero at the $\sim 95\%$ confidence level and a Bayes factor of 200. When we include multipoles $\ell \leq 1$, the Bayes factor evidence for quadrupole correlations decreases by more than an order of magnitude due to evidence for a monopolar signal at approximately 4 nHz which has also been noted in previous analyses of the NANOGrav 15-year data. Further work needs to be done in order to better characterize the properties of this monopolar signal and its effect on the evidence for quadrupolar angular correlations. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_13472 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Harmonic Analysis of the Pulsar Angular Correlations Agazie, Gabriella Baier, Jeremy G. Baker, Paul T. Becsy, Bence Blecha, Laura Boddy, Kimberly K. Brazier, Adam Brook, Paul R. Burke-Spolaor, Sarah Burnette, Rand Casey-Clyde, J. Andrew Charisi, Maria Chatterjee, Shami Cohen, Tyler Cordes, James M. Cornish, Neil J. Crawford, Fronefield Cromartie, H. Thankful DeCesar, Megan E. Demorest, Paul B. Deng, Heling Dey, Lankeswar Dolch, Timothy Ferrara, Elizabeth C. Fiore, William Fonseca, Emmanuel Freedman, Gabriel E. Gardiner, Emiko C. Gersbach, Kyle A. Glaser, Joseph Good, Deborah C. Gultekin, Kayhan Hazboun, Jeffrey S. Jennings, Ross J. Johnson, Aaron D. Kaplan, David L. Kelley, Luke Zoltan Key, Joey S. Laal, Nima Lam, Michael T. Lamb, William G. Larsen, Bjorn Lazio, T. Joseph W. Lewandowska, Natalia Liu, Tingting Luo, Jing Lynch, Ryan S. Ma, Chung-Pei Madison, Dustin R. McEwen, Alexander McKee, James W. McLaughlin, Maura A. Meyers, Patrick M. Mingarelli, Chiara M. F. Mitridate, Andrea Nay, Jonathan Nice, David J. Ocker, Stella Koch Olum, Ken D. Pennucci, Timothy T. Petrov, Polina Pol, Nihan S. Radovan, Henri A. Ransom, Scott M. Ray, Paul S. Runnoe, Jessie C. Saffer, Alexander Sardesai, Shashwat C. Schmitz, Kai Siemens, Xavier Simon, Joseph Siwek, Magdalena S. Smith, Tristan L. Fiscella, Sophia V. Sosa Stairs, Ingrid H. Stinebring, Daniel R. Susobhanan, Abhimanyu Swiggum, Joseph K. Taylor, Jacob Taylor, Stephen R. Turner, Jacob E. Unal, Caner Vallisneri, Michele van Haasteren, Rutger Verbiest, Joris Vigeland, Sarah J. Witt, Caitlin A. Wright, David Young, Olivia High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Astrophysics of Galaxies General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Pulsar timing array observations have found evidence for an isotropic gravitational wave background with the Hellings-Downs angular correlations, expected from general relativity. This interpretation hinges on the measured shape of the angular correlations, which is predominately quadrupolar under general relativity. Here we explore a more flexible parameterization: we expand the angular correlations into a sum of Legendre polynomials and use a Bayesian analysis to constrain their coefficients with the 15-year pulsar timing data set collected by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). When including Legendre polynomials with multipoles $\ell \geq 2$, we only find a significant signal in the quadrupole with an amplitude consistent with general relativity and non-zero at the $\sim 95\%$ confidence level and a Bayes factor of 200. When we include multipoles $\ell \leq 1$, the Bayes factor evidence for quadrupole correlations decreases by more than an order of magnitude due to evidence for a monopolar signal at approximately 4 nHz which has also been noted in previous analyses of the NANOGrav 15-year data. Further work needs to be done in order to better characterize the properties of this monopolar signal and its effect on the evidence for quadrupolar angular correlations. |
| title | The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Harmonic Analysis of the Pulsar Angular Correlations |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Astrophysics of Galaxies General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.13472 |