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Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are found in the centers of massive galaxies, and galaxy mergers should eventually lead to SMBH mergers. Quasar activity has long been associated with galaxy mergers, so here we investigate if supermassive…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-04-16 J. Andrew Casey-Clyde , Chiara M. F. Mingarelli , Jenny E. Greene , Andy D. Goulding , Siyuan Chen , Jonathan R. Trump

Gravitational-wave observations of compact binaries have the potential to uncover the distribution of masses and angular momenta of black holes and neutron stars in the universe. The binary components' physical parameters can be inferred…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2015-06-12 Mark Hannam , Duncan A. Brown , Stephen Fairhurst , Chris L. Fryer , Ian W. Harry

Results from pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) show evidence of a gravitational wave background (GWB) consistent with a population of unresolved supermassive black hole binaries (BHBs). The observed spectrum shows a flattening at lower…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-11-12 Federica Fastidio , Elisa Bortolas , Alessia Gualandris , Alberto Sesana , Justin Read , Walter Dehnen

The coalescence of the most massive black hole (MBH) binaries releases gravitational waves (GWs) within the detectable frequency range of Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) $(10^{-9} - 10^{-6})$ Hz. The incoherent superposition of GWs from MBH…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-02-19 Kate Attard , Alessia Gualandris , Justin I. Read , Walter Dehnen

The couplings between supermassive black-hole binaries and their environments within galactic nuclei have been well studied as part of the search for solutions to the final parsec problem. The scattering of stars by the binary or the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2016-01-26 S. R. Taylor , E. A. Huerta , J. R. Gair , S. T. McWilliams

Context. The early phase of the coalescence of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries from their host galaxies provides a guaranteed source of low-frequency (nHz-$\mu$Hz) gravitational wave (GW) radiation by pulsar timing observations.…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2012-03-28 Jinzhong Liu , Yu Zhang , Hailong Zhang , Yutao Sun , Na Wang

We investigate the capability of pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) as a probe of primordial black holes (PBHs), which might constitute the Galactic dark matter. A PBH passing nearby the Earth or a pulsar gives an impulse acceleration and induces…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-11 Kazumi. Kashiyama , Naoki. Seto

The mergers of galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are key drivers of galaxy evolution, contributing to the growth of both galaxies and their central black holes. Current and upcoming gravitational wave (GW) detectors -- Pulsar…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-08-28 Yun Fang , Rong-Gen Cai

We find the inferred properties of the putative gravitational wave background in the second data release of the European Pulsar Timing Array to be in better agreement with theoretical expectations under the improved noise model. In…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-05 Boris Goncharov , Shubhit Sardana , A. Sesana , S. M. Tomson , J. Antoniadis , A. Chalumeau , D. Champion , S. Chen , E. F. Keane , K. Liu , G. Shaifullah , L. Speri , S. Valtolina

Coalescing massive black hole binaries are powerful emitters of gravitational waves, in the LISA sensitivity range for masses M_BH ~ 10^{4-7} M_sun. According to hierarchical galaxy merger models, binary black holes should form frequently,…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Stefanie Komossa

We investigate the expected gravitational wave emission from coalescing supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries resulting from mergers of their host galaxies. When galaxies merge, the SMBHs in the host galaxies sink to the center of the new…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Motohiro Enoki , Kaiki T. Inoue , Masahiro Nagashima , Naoshi Sugiyama

Recent Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) results provided strong evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background (sGWB), consistent with a population of merging massive black holes (MBHs) at $z<1$. Meanwhile, JWST observations at $z>5$…

Gravitational waves are a prediction of general relativity, and with ground-based detectors now running in their advanced configuration, we will soon be able to measure them directly for the first time. Binaries of stellar-mass black holes…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2016-03-23 Pau Amaro-Seoane , Xian Chen

Pulsar-timing arrays (PTAs) are seeking gravitational waves from supermassive-black-hole binaries, and there are prospects to complement these searches with stellar-astrometry measurements. Theorists still disagree, however, as to whether…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2020-06-19 Selim C. Hotinli , Marc Kamionkowski , Andrew H. Jaffe

The present-day mass function of supermassive black holes is the most important observable quantity for the prediction and theoretical interpretation of the gravitational wave background (GWB) measured by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). Due to…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-09-11 Gabriela Sato-Polito , Matias Zaldarriaga

Fermi LAT observations of gamma-ray pulsars can be used to build a pulsar timing array (PTA) experiment to search for gravitational wave (GW) signals at nanohertz frequencies. At those frequencies, the dominant signal is expected to be a…

Pulsars act as accurate clocks, sensitive to gravitational redshift and acceleration induced by transiting clumps of matter. We study the sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) to single transiting compact objects, focusing on…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2019-07-25 Jeff A. Dror , Harikrishnan Ramani , Tanner Trickle , Kathryn M. Zurek

Many galaxies contain supermassive black holes (SMBHs), whose formation and history raise many puzzles. Pulsar timing arrays have recently discovered a low-frequency cosmological "hum" of gravitational waves that may be emitted by SMBH…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-08-20 John Ellis , Malcolm Fairbairn , Juan Urrutia , Ville Vaskonen

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are among the most powerful known sources of gravitational waves (GWs). Accordingly, these systems could dominate GW emission in the micro- and millihertz frequency range. Within this domain, SMBHs…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-01-08 Matthias Daniel , Kris Pardo , Laura Sagunski

Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) observations hinted towards the existence of a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) in the nHz frequency band. Still, the nature of the SGWB signal cannot be confidently inferred from current data, and…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2024-04-04 Stanislav Babak , Mikel Falxa , Gabriele Franciolini , Mauro Pieroni