2008/01/22 by E. R. Siegel, Siegel, E. R.
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0801.3458
6 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ
arxiv created 2008/01/22 · openalex publication_date 2008/01/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
I demonstrate that precision timing of millisecond pulsars possess the capabilities of detecting the gravitational effects of intervening galactic substructure. This analysis is applicable to all types of collapsed baryons including stars, planets, and MACHOs, as well as many types of dark matter, including primordial black holes, scalar miniclusters, and sufficiently dense clumps of cold dark matter. The physical signal is quantified and decomposed into observable and unobservable components; templates for the observable signals are also presented. Additionally, I calculate the expected changes in the observed period and period derivatives that will result from intervening matter. I find that pulsar timing is potentially a very useful tool for probing the nature of dark matter and to learn more about the substructure present within our galaxy.