The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
Abstract
Evidence for a low-frequency stochastic gravitational wave background has recently been reported based on analyses of pulsar timing array data. The most likely source of such a background is a population of supermassive black hole binaries, the loudest of which may be individually detected in these datasets. Here we present the search for individual supermassive black hole binaries in the NANOGrav 15-year dataset. We introduce several new techniques, which enhance the efficiency and modeling accuracy of the analysis. The search uncovered weak evidence for two candidate signals, one with a gravitational-wave frequency of 4 nHz, and another at 170 nHz. The significance of the low-frequency candidate was greatly diminished when Hellings-Downs correlations were included in the background model. The high-frequency candidate was discounted due to the lack of a plausible host galaxy, the unlikely astrophysical prior odds of finding such a source, and since most of its support comes from a single pulsar with a commensurate binary period. Finding no compelling evidence for signals from individual binary systems, we place upper limits on the strain amplitude of gravitational waves emitted by such systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2306.16222,
title = {The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries},
author = {Gabriella Agazie and Akash Anumarlapudi and Anne M. Archibald and Zaven Arzoumanian and Paul T. Baker and Bence Bécsy and Laura Blecha and Adam Brazier and Paul R. Brook and Sarah Burke-Spolaor and Robin Case and J. Andrew Casey-Clyde and Maria Charisi and Shami Chatterjee and Tyler Cohen and James M. Cordes and Neil Cornish and Fronefield Crawford and H. Thankful Cromartie and Kathryn Crowter and Megan DeCesar and Paul B. Demorest and Matthew C. Digman and Timothy Dolch and Brendan Drachler and Elizabeth C. Ferrara and William Fiore and Emmanuel Fonseca and Gabriel Freedman and Nathaniel Garver-Daniels and Peter Gentile and Joseph Glaser and Deborah Good and Kayhan Gültekin and Jeffrey Hazboun and Sophie Hourihane and Ross Jennings and Aaron D. Johnson and Megan Jones and Andrew R. Kaiser and David Kaplan and Luke Zoltan Kelley and Matthew Kerr and Joey Key and Nima Laal and Michael Lam and William G. Lamb and T. Joseph W. Lazio and Natalia Lewandowska and Tingting Liu and Duncan R. Lorimer and Jing Santiago Luo and Ryan S. Lynch and Chung-Pei Ma and Dustin Madison and Alexander McEwen and James W. McKee and Maura McLaughlin and Natasha McMann and Bradley W. Meyers and Patrick M. Meyers and Chiara M. F. Mingarelli and andrea mitridate and priya natarajan and Cherry Ng and David Nice and Stella Koch Ocker and Ken Olum and Timothy T. Pennucci and Benetge Perera and Polina Petrov and Nihan Pol and Henri A. Radovan and Scott Ransom and Paul S. Ray and Joseph Romano and Shashwat C. Sardesai and Ann Schmiedekamp and Carl Schmiedekamp and Kai Schmitz and Brent J. Shapiro-Albert and Xavier Siemens and Joseph Simon and Magdalena Siwek and Ingrid Stairs and Dan Stinebring and Kevin Stovall and Abhimanyu Susobhanan and Joseph Swiggum and Jacob Taylor and Stephen Taylor and Jacob E. Turner and Caner Unal and Michele Vallisneri and Rutger van Haasteren and Sarah J. Vigeland and Haley M. Wahl and Caitlin Witt and Olivia Young},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.16222},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
23 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters as part of Focus on NANOGrav's 15-year Data Set and the Gravitational Wave Background. For questions or comments, please email [email protected]