The sound of dark sectors in pulsar timing arrays

2024/12/20 by Amitayus Banik, Yanou Cui, Banik, Amitayus +5 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Superconducting and THz Device Technology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.dark.2026.102398

Abstract

A phase transition in the dark sector (DS) presents a promising explanation for the stochastic gravitational wave (GW) signals detected in recent observations by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs). Instead of focusing solely on fitting data with phenomenological parameters, we systematically delineate simple, underlying dark sector (DS) models at the microscopic, Lagrangian level and uncover the conditions required to yield the GW spectrum observed by PTAs. We also illustrate the possibilities of the DS cosmology, which may include a dark matter candidate with a O(MeV) mass.

Citations

• The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: the first search for gravitational waves with the MeerKAT radio telescope
• The Large-Sample Distribution of the Likelihood Ratio for Testing Composite Hypotheses

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