Related papers: The Crucial First Step in the Discovery of Millise…

Precision pulsar timing at the level of tens to hundreds of nanoseconds allows detection of nanohertz gravitational waves (GWs) from supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) at the cores of merging galaxies and, potentially, from exotic…

High-precision timing of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) over years to decades is a promising technique for direct detection of gravitational waves at nanohertz frequencies. Time-variable, multi-path scattering in the interstellar medium is a…

Arrays of precisely-timed millisecond pulsars are used to search for gravitational waves with periods of months to decades. Gravitational waves affect the path of radio pulses propagating from a pulsar to Earth, causing the arrival times of…

We assess the detectability of a nanohertz gravitational wave (GW) background with respect to additive red and white noise in the timing of millisecond pulsars. We develop detection criteria based on the cross-correlation function summed…

Analysis of high-precision timing observations of an array of approx. 20 millisecond pulsars (a so-called "timing array") may ultimately result in the detection of a stochastic gravitational-wave background. The feasibility of such a…

It has now been just over four decades since the first discovery of a millisecond spin period pulsar (MSP), B1937+21, by Don Backer and collaborators in late 1982. This finding of an entirely new class of astronomical object revolutionized…

This article provides a first-hand account of the 1982 Arecibo observations that led to the discovery of PSR B1937+21, the first-known millisecond pulsar. It is a companion paper to Demorest & Goss (2024) and Readhead (2024).

A new era in fundamental physics began when pulsars were discovered in 1967. Soon it became clear that pulsars were useful tools for a wide variety of physical and astrophysical problems. Further applications became possible with the…

The interstellar scintillation observed in radio pulsars arises from interference between electromagnetic waves scattered by electron density fluctuations in the turbulent interstellar plasma, providing a critical tool for probing the…

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are short-period pulsars that are distinguished from "normal" pulsars, not only by their short period, but also by their very small spin-down rates and high probability of being in a binary system. These…

Pulsars, the cosmic lighthouses, are strongly self-gravitating objects with core densities significantly exceeding nuclear density. Since the discovery of the Hulse--Taylor pulsar 50 years ago, binary pulsar studies have delivered numerous…

Searches for millisecond pulsars (which we here loosely define as those with periods $<$ 20 ms) in the Galactic field have undergone a renaissance in the past five years. New or recently refurbished radio telescopes utilizing cooled…

Globular clusters produce orders of magnitude more millisecond pulsars per unit mass than the Galactic disk. Since the first cluster pulsar was uncovered twenty years ago, at least 138 have been identified - most of which are binary…

The extreme timing stability of radio millisecond pulsars (MSPs) combined with their exotic environment and evolutionary history makes them excellent laboratories to probe matter in extreme condition. Population studies indicate that we…

(Abridged) This thesis presents long-term timing results on 20 millisecond pulsars (MSPs). It has been predicted that such timing may detect gravitational waves (GWs) - a major (but untested) prediction of general relativity. Our results…

Black holes orbiting the Super Massive Black Hole (SMBH) Sgr A* in the Milky-way galaxy center (GC) generate gravitational waves. The spectrum, due to stars and black holes, is continuous below 40 nHz while individual BHs within about 200…

The phenomenal rotational stability of millisecond pulsars allows them to be used as precise celestial clocks. An array of these pulsars can be exploited to search for correlated perturbations in their pulse times of arrival due to…

Continuous gravitational waves have the potential to transform gravitational wave astronomy and yield fresh insights into astrophysics, nuclear and particle physics, and condensed matter physics. We evaluate their detectability by combining…

The direct detection of gravitational waves is a major goal of current astrophysics. We provide details of a new method for detecting a stochastic background of gravitational waves using pulsar timing data. Our results show that regular…

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…