BN1 - Compact Binaries and Strong-Field Tests of Gravity |
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Speaker |
Perrodin, Delphine |
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Coauthors |
The EPTA and LEAP collaborations; the SRT scientific validation team |
| Talk Title |
Pulsar Observations with European Telescopes For Testing Gravity And Detecting Gravitational Waves |
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Abstract |
A background of nanohertz gravitational waves (GWs) from supermassive black hole binaries could soon be detected by pulsar timing arrays, which measure the times-of-arrival of radio pulses from millisecond pulsars with very high precision. The European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) uses five large European radio telescopes to monitor high-precision millisecond pulsars, imposing in this way strong constraints on a GW background. To achieve the necessary precision needed to detect GWs, the Large European Array for Pulsars (LEAP) performs simultaneous observations of pulsars at all five telescopes, which allows us to coherently add the radio pulses, maximize the signal-to-noise of pulsar signals and increase the accuracy of times-of-arrival. We report on the progress made by the LEAP collaboration and in particular on the addition of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) to the LEAP observations during its scientific validation phase, significantly increasing the sensitivity of the "LEAP telescope". In addition, we discuss how LEAP can be used to monitor strong gravity systems such as double neutron star systems and impose strong constraints on post-Keplerian parameters. |
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