Pulsar timing noise and the minimum observation time to detect gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the plateau in timing noise spectrum affects the minimum observation time needed to detect gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays, using models and observational data.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate minimum observation times considering timing noise plateaus and relates neutron star parameters to gravitational wave detection prospects.

Findings

Superfluid turbulence models can qualitatively match pulsar timing noise data.

Timing noise spectrum plateau influences the minimum observation time for GW detection.

A diagnostic links timing noise features to pulsar suitability for gravitational wave searches.

Abstract

The sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays to gravitational waves is, at some level, limited by timing noise. Red timing noise - the stochastic wandering of pulse arrival times with a red spectrum - is prevalent in slow-spinning pulsars and has been identified in many millisecond pulsars. Phenomenological models of timing noise, such as from superfluid turbulence, suggest that the timing noise spectrum plateaus below some critical frequency, $f_c$, potentially aiding the hunt for gravitational waves. We examine this effect for individual pulsars by calculating minimum observation times, $T_{\rm min}(f_c)$, over which the gravitational wave signal becomes larger than the timing noise plateau. We do this in two ways: 1) in a model-independent manner, and 2) by using the superfluid turbulence model for timing noise as an example to illustrate how neutron star parameters can be constrained. We show that the superfluid turbulence model can reproduce the data qualitatively from a number of pulsars observed as part of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. We further show how a value of $f_c$, derived either through observations or theory, can be related to $T_{\rm min}$. This provides a diagnostic whereby the usefulness of timing array pulsars for gravitational-wave detection can be quantified.