English

Angular correlation and deformed Hellings-Downs curve from spin-2 ultralight dark matter

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-01-14 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

The pulsar timings are sensitive to both the nanohertz gravitational-wave background and the oscillation of ultralight dark matter. The Hellings-Downs angular correlation curve provides a criterion to search for stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds at nanohertz via pulsar timing arrays. We study the angular correlation of the timing residuals induced by the spin-2 ultralight dark matter, which is different from the usual Hellings-Downs correlation. At a typical frequency, we show that the spin-2 ultralight dark matter can give rise to the deformation of the Hellings-Downs correlation curve induced by the stochastic gravitational wave background.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.03984,
  title  = {Angular correlation and deformed Hellings-Downs curve from spin-2 ultralight dark matter},
  author = {Rong-Gen Cai and Jing-Rui Zhang and Yun-Long Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.03984},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages, 4 figures. v2: matching version published in PRD

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:40:07.582Z