Detecting massive gravitons using pulsar timing arrays

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method using pulsar timing arrays to detect or constrain the mass of gravitons, potentially revealing deviations from general relativity by observing gravitational wave dispersion.

Contribution

It develops a detection scheme and algorithm to identify massive gravitons using pulsar timing data, with sensitivity estimates for various observation durations and pulsar counts.

Findings

Detects gravitons heavier than 3×10^{-22} eV with 90% probability in 5-year observations of 60 pulsars.

Extends sensitivity to 5×10^{-23} eV with 10-year observations of the same pulsar set.

Shows that increasing pulsar count and observation time improves graviton mass constraints.

Abstract

Massive gravitons are features of some alternatives to general relativity. This has motivated experiments and observations that, so far, have been consistent with the zero mass graviton of general relativity, but further tests will be valuable. A basis for new tests may be the high sensitivity gravitational wave experiments that are now being performed, and the higher sensitivity experiments that are being planned. In these experiments it should be feasible to detect low levels of dispersion due to nonzero graviton mass. One of the most promising techniques for such a detection may be the pulsar timing program that is sensitive to nano-Hertz gravitational waves. Here we present some details of such a detection scheme. The pulsar timing response to a gravitational wave background with the massive graviton is calculated, and the algorithm to detect the massive graviton is presented. We conclude that, with 90% probability, massles gravitons can be distinguished from gravitons heavier than $3\times 10^{-22}$ eV (Compton wave length $\lambda_{\rm g}=4.1 \times 10^{12}$ km), if biweekly observation of 60 pulsars are performed for 5 years with pulsar RMS timing accuracy of 100 ns. If 60 pulsars are observed for 10 years with the same accuracy, the detectable graviton mass is reduced to $5\times 10^{-23}$ eV ($\lambda_{\rm g}=2.5 \times 10^{13}$ km); for 5-year observations of 100 or 300 pulsars, the sensitivity is respectively $2.5\times 10^{-22}$ ($\lambda_{\rm g}=5.0\times 10^{12}$ km) and $10^{-22}$ eV ($\lambda_{\rm g}=1.2\times 10^{13}$ km). Finally, a 10-year observation of 300 pulsars with 100 ns timing accuracy would probe graviton masses down to $3\times 10^{-23}$ eV ($\lambda_{\rm g}=4.1\times 10^{13}$ km).