We discuss the ability of the SKA to observe QSO proper motions induced by long-wavelength gravitational radiation. We find that the SKA, configured for VLBI with multiple beams at high frequency (8 GHz), is sensitive to a dimensionless characteristic strain of roughly 10−13, comparable to (and with very different errors than) other methods in the 1/yr frequency band such as pulsar timing.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0409637,
title = {Observing Gravitational Radiation with QSO Proper Motions and the SKA},
author = {Andrew H. Jaffe},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0409637},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
to appear in "Science with the Square Kilometer Array," eds. C. Carilli and S. Rawlings, New Astronomy Reviews (Elsevier: Amsterdam)