Related papers: Pulsars and Gravity
General relativity has predicted the existence of gravitational waves (GW), which are waves of the distortions of space-time with two degrees of polarization and the propagation speed of light. Alternative theories predict more…
It is widely accepted that dark matter contributes about a quarter of the critical mass-energy density in our Universe. The nature of dark matter is currently unknown, with the mass of possible constituents spanning nearly one hundred…
We argue that pulsars may be spin-polarized neutron stars, i.e. cosmic permanent magnets. This would simply explain several observational facts about pulsars, including the 'beacon effect' itself i.e. the static/stable misalignment of…
Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) can be used to detect and study gravitational waves in the nanohertz band (i.e., wavelengths of order light-years). This requires high-precision, decades-long data sets from sensitive, instrumentally stable…
The first direct detection of gravitational waves may be made through observations of pulsars. The principal aim of pulsar timing array projects being carried out worldwide is to detect ultra-low frequency gravitational waves (f ~ 10^-9 to…
Pulsar timing measurements can be used to detect gravitational radiation from massive black hole binaries. The ~106d quasi-periodic flux variations in Sagittarius A* at radio wavelengths reported by Zhao, Bower, & Goss (2001) may be due to…
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in binary systems are precise laboratories for tests of gravity and the physics of dense matter. Their orbits can show relativistic effects that provide a measurement of the neutron star mass and the pulsars are…
The Square-Kilometre-Array (SKA) will be a radio telescope with a collecting area that will exceed that of existing telescopes by a factor of a hundred or so. This contribution summarises one of the key-science projects selected for the…
A new approach to the problem of gravitational waves detection based on simultaneous timing of several pulsars and subsequent expansion of the post-fit timing data into components of different spectral kind (with different spectral indices)…
In one of our previous articles we have considered the role of a time dependent magnetic ellipticity on pulsars' braking indices and on the putative gravitational waves these objects can emit. Since only nine of more than 2000 known pulsars…
Gravitational waves offer a potent mean to test the underlying theory of gravity. In general theories of gravity, such as scalar-tensor theories, one expects modifications in the friction term and the sound speed in the gravitational wave…
Over the last few years, a set of new results from pulsar timing has introduced much tighter constraints on violations of the strong equivalence principle (SEP), either via a direct verification of the universality of free fall for a pulsar…
We investigate the possibilities that pulsars act as the lens in gravitational microlensing events towards the galactic bulge or a spiral arm. Our estimation is based on expectant survey and observations of FAST (Five hundred meter Aperture…
Pulsars are known to display short-term variability. Recently, examples of longer-term emission variability have emerged that are often correlated with changes in the rotational properties of the pulsar. To further illuminate this…
Gravitational waves (GWs) at ultra-low frequencies (${\lesssim 100\,\mathrm{nHz}}$) are key to understanding the assembly and evolution of astrophysical black hole (BH) binaries with masses $\sim 10^{6}-10^{9}\,M_\odot$ at low redshifts.…
Radio pulsars in relativistic binary systems are unique tools to study the curved space-time around massive compact objects. The discovery of a pulsar closely orbiting the super-massive black hole at the centre of our Galaxy, Sgr A*, would…
Radio pulsars are often used as clocks in a wide variety of experiments. Imperfections in the clock, known as timing noise, have the potential to reduce the significance of, or even thwart e.g. the attempt to find a stochastic gravitational…
The recent discovery of ultra-long wavelength gravitational waves through the advent of pulsar timing arrays (PTA) has opened up new avenues for fundamental science. Here we show that every PTA source will be diffractively lensed by…
The sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays to gravitational waves is, at some level, limited by timing noise. Red timing noise - the stochastic wandering of pulse arrival times with a red spectrum - is prevalent in slow-spinning pulsars and…
Radio pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments using millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are beginning to detect nHz gravitational waves (GWs). MSPs are bright GeV gamma-ray emitters, and all-sky monitoring of about 100 MSPs with the Fermi Large Area…