English

Pulsars and Gravitational Wave Detection

Astrophysics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

The number of known millisecond pulsars has dramatically increased in the last few years. Regular observations of these pulsars may allow gravitational waves with frequencies ~10^-9 Hz to be detected. A ``pulsar timing array'' is therefore complimentary to other searches for gravitational waves using ground-based or space-based interferometers that are sensitive to much higher frequencies. In this review we describe 1) the basic methods for using an array of pulsars as a gravitational wave detector, 2) the sources of the potentially detectable waves, 3) current limits on individual sources and a stochastic background and 4) the new project recently started using the Parkes radio telescope.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0412153,
  title  = {Pulsars and Gravitational Wave Detection},
  author = {George Hobbs},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0412153},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Accepted by PASA