A Detection of Red Noise in PSR J1824$-$2452A and Projections for PSR B1937+21 using NICER X-ray Timing Data

TL;DR

This study uses NICER X-ray data to detect red noise in millisecond pulsars, demonstrating the potential for future X-ray missions to identify intrinsic pulsar noise and gravitational wave backgrounds with improved timing precision.

Contribution

The paper introduces a Bayesian method to detect red noise in X-ray pulsar data and projects the observational requirements for future missions to reliably identify such noise.

Findings

Red noise detected in PSR J1824-2452A with strong Bayesian evidence.

Future X-ray missions can detect red noise in PSR B1937+21 within 5 years with specified timing accuracy.

Injected gravitational wave background signals can be distinguished in long-term observations without red noise interference.

Abstract

We have used X-ray data from the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) to search for long time-scale, correlated variations ("red noise") in the pulse times of arrival from the millisecond pulsars PSR J1824$-$2452A and PSR B1937+21. These data more closely track intrinsic noise because X-rays are unaffected by the radio-frequency dependent propagation effects of the interstellar medium. Our Bayesian search methodology yields strong evidence (natural log Bayes factor of $9.634 \pm 0.016$) for red noise in PSR J1824$-$2452A, but is inconclusive for PSR B1937+21. In the interest of future X-ray missions, we devise and implement a method to simulate longer and higher precision X-ray datasets to determine the timing baseline necessary to detect red noise. We find that the red noise in PSR B1937+21 can be reliably detected in a 5-year mission with a time-of-arrival (TOA) error of 2 microseconds and an observing cadence of 20 observations per month compared to the 5 microsecond TOA error and 11 observations per month that NICER currently achieves in PSR B1937+21. We investigate detecting red noise in PSR B1937+21 with other combinations of observing cadences and TOA errors. We also find that an injected stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB) with an amplitude of $A_{\rm GWB}=2\times10^{-15}$ and spectral index of $\gamma_{\rm GWB}=13/3$ can be detected in a pulsar with similar TOA precision to PSR B1937+21, but with no additional red noise, in a 10-year mission that observes the pulsar 15 times per month and has an average TOA error of 1 microsecond.