Searching for continuous Gravitational Waves in the second data release of the International Pulsar Timing Array

Creators: Falxa, M.; Babak, S.; Baker, P. T.; Bécsy, B.; Chalumeau, A.; Chen, S.; Chen, Z.; Cornish, N. J.; Guillemot, L.; Hazboun, J. S.; Mingarelli, C. M. F.; Parthasarathy, A.; Petiteau, A.; Pol, N. S.; Sesana, A.; Spolaor, S. B.; Taylor, S. R.; Theureau, G.; Vallisneri, M.; Vigeland, S. J.; Witt, C. A.; Zhu, X.; Antoniadis, J.; Arzoumanian, Z.; Bailes, M.; Bhat, N. D. R.; Blecha, L.; Brazier, A.; Brook, P. R.; Caballero, N.; Cameron, A. D.; Casey-Clyde, J. A.; Champion, D.; Charisi, M.; Chatterjee, S.; Cognard, I.; Cordes, J. M.; Crawford, F.; Cromartie, H. T.; Crowter, K.; Dai, S.; DeCesar, M. E.; Demorest, P. B.; Desvignes, G.; Dolch, T.; Drachler, B.; Feng, Y.; Ferrara, E. C.; Fiore, W.; Fonseca, E.; Garver-Daniels, N.; Glaser, J.; Goncharov, B.; Good, D. C.; Griessmeier, J.; Guo, Y. J.; Gültekin, K.; Hobbs, G.; Hu, H.; Islo, K.; Jang, J.; Jennings, R. J.; Johnson, A. D.; Jones, M. L.; Kaczmarek, J.; Kaiser, A. R.; Kaplan, D. L.; Keith, M.; Kelley, L. Z.; Kerr, M.; Key, J. S.; Laal, N.; Lam, M.; Lamb, W. G.; Lazio, T. J. W.; Liu, K.; Liu, T.; Luo, J.; Lynch, R.; Madison, D. R.; Main, R.; Manchester, R.; McEwen, A.; McKee, J.; McLaughlin, M. A.; Ng, C.; Nice, D. J.; Ocker, S.; Olum, K. D.; Osłowski, S.; Pennucci, T. T.; Perera, B. B. P.; Perrodin, D.; Porayko, N.; Possenti, A.; Quelquejay-Leclere, H.; Ransom, S. M.; Ray, P. S.; Reardon, D. J.; Russell, C. J.; Samajdar, A.; Sarkissian, J.; Schult, L.; Shaifullah, G.; Shannon, R. M.; Shapiro-Albert, B. J.; Siemens, X.; Simon, J. J.; Siwek, M.; Smith, T. L.; Speri, L.; Spiewak, R.; Stairs, I. H.; Stappers, B.; Stinebring, D. R.; Swiggum, J. K.; Tiburzi, C.; Turner, J.; Vecchio, A.; Verbiest, J. P. W.; Wahl, H.; Wang, S. Q.; Wang, J.; Wang, J.; Wu, Z.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, S.; IPTA Collaboration

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Abstract

The International Pulsar Timing Array 2nd data release is the combination of data sets from worldwide collaborations. In this study, we search for continuous waves: gravitational wave signals produced by individual supermassive black hole binaries in the local universe. We consider binaries on circular orbits and neglect the evolution of orbital frequency over the observational span. We find no evidence for such signals and set sky averaged 95 per cent upper limits on their amplitude h₉₅. The most sensitive frequency is 10 nHz with h₉₅ = 9.1 × 10⁻¹⁵. We achieved the best upper limit to date at low and high frequencies of the PTA band thanks to improved effective cadence of observations. In our analysis, we have taken into account the recently discovered common red noise process, which has an impact at low frequencies. We also find that the peculiar noise features present in some pulsars data must be taken into account to reduce the false alarm. We show that using custom noise models is essential in searching for continuous gravitational wave signals and setting the upper limit.

Additional Information

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). The IPTA is a consortium of existing PTA collaborations, namely, the EPTA, NANOGrav, PPTA, and the recent addition of the InPTA. Observing collaborations from China and South Africa are also part of the IPTA. The EPTA is a collaboration between European and partner institutes with the aim to provide high precision pulsar timing to work towards the direct detection of low-frequency gravitational waves. An Advanced Grant of the European Research Council to implement the Large European Array for Pulsars (LEAP) also provides funding. Part of this work is based on observations with the 100-m telescope of the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR) at Effelsberg in Germany. Pulsar research at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and the observations using the Lovell Telescope are supported by a Consolidated Grant (ST/T000414/1) from the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council. The Nançay radio Observatory is operated by the Paris Observatory, associated with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and to the Université d' Orléans. We acknowledge financial support from 'Programme National de Cosmologie and Galaxies' (PNCG), and 'Programme National Hautes Energies' (PNHE) funded by CNRS/INSUIN2P3-INP, CEA, and CNES, France. We acknowledge financial support from Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-18-CE31-0015), France. The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope is operated by the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) with support from the Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research (NWO). The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is funded by the Department of University and Research (MIUR), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (RAS) and is operated as National Facility by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). The NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Physics Frontier Center award numbers 1430 284 and 2020265. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The Green Bank Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The Arecibo Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by the University of Central Florida in alliance with Yang Enterprises, Inc. and Universidad Metropolitana. The Parkes radio telescope (Murriyang) is part of the Australia Telescope which is funded by the Commonwealth Government for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. JA acknowledges support by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) under the 2nd Call of 'Science and Society' Action Always strive for excellence – 'Theodoros Papazoglou' (Project Number: 01431). SBS acknowledges generous support by the NSF through grant AST-1815664. The work is supported by National SKA program of China 2020SKA0120100, Max-Planck Partner Group, NSFC 11690024, CAS Cultivation Project for FAST Scientific. JACC was supported in part by NASA CT Space Grant PTE Federal Award Number 80NSSC20M0129. CMFM and JACC are also supported by the National Science Foundations NANOGrav Physics Frontier Center, Award Number 2020265. The Center for Computational Astrophysics is a division of the Flatiron Institute in New York City, which is supported by the Simons Foundation. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grant AST-2106552. AC acknowledges support from the Paris Île-de-France Region. Support for HTC was provided by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program grant HST-HF2-51453.001 awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. SD is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award (DE210101738) funded by the Australian Government. GD, RK, and MKr acknowledge support from European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant 'BlackHoleCam' Grant Agreement Number 610 058 and ERC Advanced Grant 'LEAP' Grant Agreement Number 337062. TD and MTL acknowledge support received from NSF AAG award number 200968. ECF is supported by NASA under award number 80GSFC17M0002.002. BG is supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research within the PRIN 2017 Research Program Framework, n. 2017SYRTCN. Portions of this work performed at the Naval Research Laboratory is supported by NASA and ONR 6.1 basic research funding. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. JWM gratefully acknowledges support by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), [funding reference CITA 490888-16]. KDO was supported in part by NSF Grant No. 2207267. ASa, ASe, and GS acknowledge financial support provided under the European Union's H2020 ERC Consolidator Grant 'Binary Massive Black Hole Astrophysic' (B Massive, Grant Agreement: 818691). RMS acknowledges support through Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT190100155. JJS is supported by an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship under award AST-2202388, and this research was supported in part by NSF AST-1847938. This research was funded partially by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC), grants CE170100004 (OzGrav) and FL150100148. Pulsar research at UBC is supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant and by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. SRT acknowledges support from NSF grants AST-2007993 and PHY-2020265. SRT also acknowledges support from the Vanderbilt University College of Arts & Science Dean's Faculty Fellowship program. Multiple NANOGrav members acknowledge support of NSF Physics Frontiers Center awards 1430284 and 2020265. SMR is a CIFAR Fellow. AV acknowledges the support of the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation. JPWV acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through the Heisenberg programme (Project No. 433075039). MED acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Physics Frontier Center award 1430284, and from the Naval Research Laboratory by NASA under contract S-15633Y. ZCC is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12247176) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Fellowship No. 2022M710429. CAW acknowledges support from CIERA, the Adler Planetarium, and the Brinson Foundation through a CIERA-Adler postdoctoral fellowship. Data Availability: The timing data used in this article is available on the IPTA website https://ipta4gw.org/data-release/ (second data release: https://gitlab.com/IPTA/DR2).

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