2011/01/19 by Fredrick A. Jenet, Fredrick Jenet, J. W. Armstrong +1 · 13 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gravitational wave #Gravitational-wave observatory #Physics #Pulsar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Sensitivity (control systems) #astro-ph.IM #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.83.081301
published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 83(8) (American Physical Society) · 8 pages, 1 figure. Submitted to Physical Review
arxiv created 2011/01/19 · openalex publication_date 2011/04/11 · arxiv updated 2015/03/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We compute the sensitivity, constrained by instrumental, propagation, and other fundamental noises, of pulsar timing to very-low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs). Reaching predicted GW signal strengths will require suppression of time-of-arrival fluctuations caused by interstellar plasma turbulence and a reduction of white rms timing noise to \ensuremath\lesssim100 ns. Assuming negligible intrinsic pulsar rotational noise, perfect time transfer from time standard to observatory, and stable pulse profiles, the resulting single-pulsar signal-to-noise ratio=1 sensitivity is limited by terrestrial time standards at hrms\ensuremath∼2\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-16 [f/\phantom\rule0ex0ex(1 cycle/year)]\ensuremath-1/2 for f<3\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-8 Hz, where f is the Fourier frequency and a bandwidth of 1 cycle/(10 years) is assumed. Since this sensitivity is comparable to predicted GW signal levels, a reliable detection will require substantial signal-to-noise ratio improvement via pulsar timing array.