Estimating the sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays

2014/06/30 by Christopher J. Moore, C J Moore, Stephen R. Taylor +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Bayesian probability #Data set #Frequentist inference #Interpretation (philosophy) #Monochromatic electromagnetic plane wave #Pulsar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Scientific Research and Discoveries #Sensitivity (control systems) #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.IM #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/32/5/055004

19 pages, 4 figures; version 2 corrects typo in Eq 16

openalex publication_date 2015/01/30 · arxiv created 2015/03/12 · arxiv updated 2015/06/22 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The sensitivity curve of a canonical pulsar timing array is calculated for two types of source: a monochromatic wave and a stochastic background. These calculations are performed in both a Bayesian and frequentist framework, using both analytical and numerical methods. These calculations are used to clarify the interpretation of the sensitivity curves and to illustrate the sometimes overlooked fact that the sensitivity curve depends not only on the properties of the pulse time-of-arrival data set but also on the properties of the source being observed. The Bayesian and frequentist frameworks were found to give consistent results and the analytic and numerical calculations were also found to be in good agreement.

Citations

• Core condensation in heavy halos: a two-stage theory for galaxy formation and clustering
• The Demography of Massive Dark Objects in Galaxy Centers
• The stochastic gravitational-wave background from massive black hole binary systems: implications for observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays

Cited by

• The Environmental Effects on Inspiraling Binary Black Hole Systems in the Centers of the LMC and M31
• All-sky analysis of astrochronometric signals induced by gravitational waves