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We study the non-Gaussian features of the gravitational wave (GW) background generated by a population of inspiraling supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries. We show that the SMBH GW amplitude distribution (GWAD) features a universal heavy…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-04-10 Juhan Raidal , Juan Urrutia , Ville Vaskonen , Hardi Veermäe

NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA, and CPTA have announced the evidence for a stochastic signal from their latest data sets. Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are supposed to be the most promising gravitational-wave (GW) sources of pulsar timing…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2023-11-16 Yan-Chen Bi , Yu-Mei Wu , Zu-Cheng Chen , Qing-Guo Huang

Recent pulsar timing array (PTA) observations have detected nanohertz gravitational waves, likely originating from massive black hole binaries (MBHBs). The detected amplitude is unexpectedly higher than inferred from the electromagnetic…

We present a refined estimation of the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) based on observed dual active galactic nuclei (AGNs) together with AGN X-ray luminosity functions, in light of recent Pulsar Timing Array detections of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-01-14 Katsunori Kusakabe , Yoshiyuki Inoue , Daisuke Toyouchi

By inferring the gravitational wave background (GWB) from a population of supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs), pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) enable the study of massive black holes. In many ways, PTAs manifest the promise of a…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-12-16 Nima Laal , Stephen R. Taylor , Cayenne Matt , Kayhan Gultekin

Following the recent evidence for a gravitational wave (GW) background found by pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments, the next major science milestone is resolving individual supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs). The detection of…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2026-04-21 Polina Petrov , Levi Schult , Stephen R. Taylor , Nihan Pol , Nima Laal , Maria Charisi , Chung-Pei Ma

Inspiraling massive black-hole binaries (MBHBs) forming in the aftermath of galaxy mergers are expected to be the loudest gravitational-wave (GW) sources relevant for pulsar-timing arrays (PTAs) at nHz frequencies. The incoherent overlap of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-06-14 Matteo Bonetti , Alberto Sesana , Enrico Barausse , Francesco Haardt

Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) collaborations reported evidence of a nano-Hz stochastic gravitational wave background (sGWB) compatible with an adiabatically inspiraling population of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs). Despite the large…

An important next step for pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) is to measure anisotropies in the gravitational wave background (GWB) at $\sim$ nano-Hz frequencies. We calculate the expected GWB anisotropies using empirically calibrated models for…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-02-20 Meng-Xiang Lin , Adam Lidz , Chung-Pei Ma

In this paper we attempt to investigate the nature of the first gravitational wave (GW) signal to be detected by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs): will it be an individual, resolved supermassive black hole binary (SBHB), or a stochastic…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-23 Pablo A. Rosado , Alberto Sesana , Jonathan Gair

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…

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

The nanohertz gravitational wave background (GWB) is believed to be dominated by GW emission from supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs). Observations of several dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) strongly suggest a link between AGN and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-01-24 J. Andrew Casey-Clyde , Chiara M. F. Mingarelli , Jenny E. Greene , Kris Pardo , Morgan Nañez , Andy D. Goulding

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

A large population of binary systems in the Universe emitting gravitational waves (GW) would produce a stochastic noise, known as the gravitational wave background (GWB). The properties of the GWB directly depend on the attributes of its…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-12-04 Mikel Falxa , Hippolyte Quelquejay Leclere , Alberto Sesana

The NANOGrav, PPTA, EPTA, CPTA and MPTA collaborations have reported compelling evidence for the existence of the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background (SGWB). This inferred background's amplitude and frequency spectrum align closely…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-07-08 Zhao-Qiang Shen , Guan-Wen Yuan , Yi-Ying Wang , Yuan-Zhu Wang , Yin-Jie Li , Yi-Zhong Fan

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…

We investigate how pulsar timing array (PTA) measurements of the nanoHertz gravitational-wave background (GWB) can constrain models for the growth history of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and how active galactic nucleus (AGN) and stellar…

The most conservative interpretation of the nHz stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) discovered by NANOGrav and other Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) Collaborations is astrophysical, namely that it originates from supermassive black…