Re-visiting gravitational wave events via pulsars

TL;DR

This paper proposes using pulsars as remote gravitational wave detectors to revisit past GW events, predicting when their imprints might be observed on pulsar signals within 50 years.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of detecting past gravitational wave events through pulsar signal analysis, providing specific pulsar-event timing predictions.

Findings

Identifies pulsars that could carry imprints of past GW events.

Predicts arrival times of these signals within a 50-year window.

Shows the model-independent nature of timing predictions.

Abstract

By now many gravitational wave (GW) signals have been detected by LIGO and Virgo, with the waves reaching earth directly from their respective sources. These waves will also travel to different pulsars and will cause (tiny) transient deformations in the pulsar shape. Some of us have recently shown that the resultant transient change in the pulsar moment of inertia may leave an observable imprint on the pulsar signals as detected on earth, especially at resonance. The pulsars may thus act as remotely stationed Weber gravitational wave detectors. This allows us to revisit the past GW events via pulsars. We give here a list of specific pulsars whose future signals will carry the imprints of past GW events, to be specific we constrain it within 50 years. Some interesting cases are, supernova SN1987A with earliest perturbed signals from pulsars J0709-5923 and B0559-57 expected to reach earth in 2023 and 2024 respectively, Crab supernova, with perturbed signal arrival date from pulsar J1856-3754 in 2057, and GW170814 event with its imprints on the signals on the pulsar J0437-4715 reaching earth between 2035-2043. Even the earliest recorded supernova SN185 event may become observable again via pulsar J0900-3144 with the perturbed pulsar signal reaching us sometime between 2033-2066. Importantly, even though the strength of the signal will depend on the interior properties of the pulsar, the expected dates of signal arrival are completely model independent, depending only on the locations of the source and the relevant pulsar.