TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. III: Gravitational wave simulation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how the tempo2 pulsar timing package can simulate gravitational wave effects on pulsar timing data, aiding in detection efforts and sensitivity analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a new capability in tempo2 to simulate gravitational wave-induced timing residuals, enhancing gravitational wave detection and analysis.

Findings

Simulations can set upper bounds on stochastic gravitational wave background amplitude.

Assess the sensitivity of pulsar timing to individual supermassive black hole binaries.

Provides a tool for gravitational wave detection strategy development.

Abstract

Analysis of pulsar timing data-sets may provide the first direct detection of gravitational waves. This paper, the third in a series describing the mathematical framework implemented into the tempo2 pulsar timing package, reports on using tempo2 to simulate the timing residuals induced by gravitational waves. The tempo2 simulations can be used to provide upper bounds on the amplitude of an isotropic, stochastic, gravitational wave background in our Galaxy and to determine the sensitivity of a given pulsar timing experiment to individual, supermassive, binary black hole systems.