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The gravitational-wave background from supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) has yet to be detected. This has led to speculations as to whether current pulsar timing array limits are in tension with theoretical predictions. In this…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-01-07 Xing-Jiang Zhu , Weiguang Cui , Eric Thrane

Gravitational Waves (GWs) are tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time predicted by Einstein's General Relativity. Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are well poised to detect low frequency ($10^{-9}$ -- $10^{-7}$ Hz) GWs in the near future. There…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-04 J. A. Ellis , F. A. Jenet , M. A. McLaughlin

We introduce a technique for gravitational-wave analysis, where Gaussian process regression is used to emulate the strain spectrum of a stochastic background using population-synthesis simulations. This leads to direct Bayesian inference on…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-05-10 Stephen R. Taylor , Joseph Simon , Laura Sampson

Inspiralling supermassive black-hole binaries (SMBHBs) are expected to be the main source of the nanohertz gravitational-wave background (GWB) targeted by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). We provide a simple and general analytic expression for…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-04-22 Yacine Ali-Haïmoud

With strong evidence of a common-spectrum stochastic process in the most recent datasets from the NANOGrav Collaboration, the European Pulsar Timing Array (PTA), Parkes PTA, and the International PTA, it is crucial to assess the effects of…

Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) are approaching the sensitivity required for a $5\sigma$ detection of the nanohertz stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB). This makes it crucial to deeply understand the behaviour of our analysis…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-27 Irene Ferranti , Mikel Falxa , Federico Fantoccoli , Alberto Sesana , Golam Mohiuddin Shaifullah

Recent findings from several Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) collaborations point to the existence of a Gravitational Wave Background (GWB) at nanohertz frequencies. A key next step towards characterizing this signal and identifying its origin is…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-01-16 Thomas Konstandin , Anna-Malin Lemke , Andrea Mitridate , Enrico Perboni

Supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) in galactic centers may radiate gravitational wave (GW) in the nano-Hertz frequency band, which are expected to be detected by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) in the near future. GW signals from…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-02-12 Changshuo Yan , Wen Zhao , Youjun Lu

Several observational phenomena suggest that the standard model of cosmology and particle physics requires revision. To address this, we consider the extension of general relativity known as massive gravity (MG). In this Letter, we explore…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-08-04 Chris Choi , Tina Kahniashvili

Gravitational wave (GW) searches using pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are assumed to be limited by the typical average observational cadence of $1/(2~{\rm weeks})$ for a single pulsar to GW frequencies $\lesssim 4\times 10^{-7}$ Hz. We show…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-02-10 Yan Wang , Soumya D. Mohanty , Zhoujian Cao

Supermassive black hole (BH) binaries would comprise the strongest sources of gravitational waves (GW) once they reach <<1 pc separations, for both pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) and space based (SB) detectors. While BH binaries coalescences…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2014-10-15 Eva Martínez Palafox , Octavio Valenzuela , Pedro Colín , Stefan Gottlöber

Recent Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) collaborations show strong evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) with the characteristic Hellings-Downs inter-pulsar correlations. The signal may stem from supermassive black hole…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-12-25 N. M. Jiménez Cruz , Ameek Malhotra , Gianmassimo Tasinato , Ivonne Zavala

We consider the sensitivity of the pulsar timing array (PTA) technique to specific kind of narrow-band stochastic signals in nano-Hz frequency range. Specifically, we examine the narrow-band signal produced by oscillating gravitational…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2014-11-04 Konstantin A. Postnov , Nataliya K. Porayko

We present the results of the search for an isotropic stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB) at nanohertz frequencies using the second data release of the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) for 25 millisecond pulsars and a…

The recent evidence of a stochastic background of gravitational waves in the nHz band by pulsar-timing array (PTA) experiments has shed new light on the formation and evolution of massive black hole binaries with masses $\sim 10^8$--$10^9…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-11-27 Enrico Barausse , Kallol Dey , Marco Crisostomi , Akshay Panayada , Sylvain Marsat , Soumen Basak

An enormous number of compact binary systems, spanning from stellar to supermassive levels, emit substantial gravitational waves during their final evolutionary stages, thereby creating a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). We…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-12-05 Zhencheng Li , Zhen Jiang , Xi-Long Fan , Yun Chen , Liang Gao , Qi Guo , Shenghua Yu

We calculate the expected nHz--$\mu$Hz gravitational wave (GW) spectrum from coalescing Massive Black Hole (MBH) binaries resulting from mergers of their host galaxies. We consider detection of this spectrum by precision pulsar timing and a…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Andrew H. Jaffe , Donald C. Backer

Pulsar timing arrays are sensitive to low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs), such as those produced by supermassive binary black holes at subparsec separations. The incoherent superposition of GWs emitted by a cosmological population of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-05 Shashwat C. Sardesai , Gabriel E. Freedman , Sarah J. Vigeland , Caitlin A. Witt

We search for an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB) in the $12.5$-year pulsar timing data set collected by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves. Our analysis finds strong evidence of a…

The recent astronomical milestone by the pulsar timing arrays (PTA) has revealed galactic-size gravitational waves (GW) in the form of a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB), correlating the radio pulses emitted by millisecond…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-11-08 Reginald Christian Bernardo , Kin-Wang Ng