MG15 - Talk detail

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One hundred years after Einstein’s formulation of general relativity, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) experiment confirmed the detection of gravitational waves using Earth-based detectors, which opened up a new era of “gravitational wave astronomy”. While LIGO is sensitive to the gravitational wave frequencies that are typical of binary neutron star or binary stellar black hole systems, there is a wider range of gravitational wave frequencies to be explored. This includes the much lower (of the order of nanohertz) frequencies coming from pairs of supermassive black holes in distant galaxy mergers. Pulsar timing arrays are particularly well suited to explore these systems. Millisecond pulsars are fast-rotating neutron stars which emit radio waves along their magnetic poles; their precise rotation makes them extremely precise cosmic clocks. Using an array of millisecond pulsars, we can study the disturbances caused by gravitational waves emitted from distant galaxy mergers onto the radio signals emitted by pulsars and detected at Earth’s radio telescopes. Using the best radio telescopes and pulsar instruments in the world, pulsars can be monitored for several years and decades, leading to the very precise determination of pulsar parameters. This in turn allows us to search for signals due to gravitational waves from distant supermassive black hole binaries. In this talk, we discuss the techniques involved in pulsar timing arrays, and present the latest updates from the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA), which involves the collaboration of individual pulsar timing array collaborations such as the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA), the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves (NANOGrav), and the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA).

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