Argus: JAX state-space filtering for gravitational wave detection with a pulsar timing array

2025/10/13 by Kimpson, Tom, O'Neill, Nicholas J., Meyers, Patrick M. +1
#FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.11077

Abstract

Argus is a high-performance Python package for detecting and characterising nanohertz gravitational waves in pulsar timing array data. The package provides a complete Bayesian inference framework based on state-space models, using Kalman filtering for efficient likelihood evaluation. Argus leverages JAX for just-in-time compilation, GPU acceleration, and automatic differentiation, facilitating rapid Bayesian inference with gradient-based samplers. The state-space approach provides a computationally efficient alternative to traditional frequency-domain methods, offering linear scaling with the number of pulse times-of-arrival, and natural handling of non-stationary processes.

Citations

• State-space algorithm for detecting the nanohertz gravitational wave background
• State-space analysis of a continuous gravitational wave source with a pulsar timing array: inclusion of the pulsar terms
• Kalman tracking and parameter estimation of continuous gravitational waves with a pulsar timing array
• BlackJAX: Composable Bayesian inference in JAX
• Search for an Isotropic Gravitational-wave Background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array
• Composable Effects for Flexible and Accelerated Probabilistic Programming in NumPyro
• The Second International Pulsar Timing Array Mock Data Challenge
• The No-U-Turn Sampler: Adaptively Setting Path Lengths in Hamiltonian Monte Carlo

Related

• State-space algorithm for detecting the nanohertz gravitational wave background
• State-space analysis of a continuous gravitational wave source with a pulsar timing array: inclusion of the pulsar terms
• The Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomer
• gwsnr: A python package for efficient signal-to-noise calculation of gravitational-waves
• The International Pulsar Timing Array checklist for the detection of nanohertz gravitational waves