From the Solar System to cosmological distances: a complete formalism for gravitational wave astrometry

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive formalism for gravitational wave astrometry that accounts for sources at finite distances, enabling the detection of gravitational wave backgrounds through astrometric measurements at frequencies beyond traditional pulsar timing arrays.

Contribution

It introduces a new framework for calculating source displacements caused by gravitational waves without the infinite distance approximation, extending the reach to mHz frequencies and nearby objects.

Findings

SNR greater than one for relevant cases, indicating detectability.

Potential to constrain gravitational wave background to percent level.

Formalism applicable to objects within the GW wavelength range.

Abstract

The presence of a gravitational wave background (GWB) can be established not only via exquisitely precise pulsar timing array (PTA) measurements, but also via astrometric observations. Indeed, the very same background responsible for the delay in the arrival time of pulse causes an apparent displacement of galactic objects as stars and asteroids. In this work we provide a framework that allows to derive the displacement of sources overcoming the usually adopted ``infinite distance'' approximation. We also present how this formalism can be used to study the displacements of objects at distances comparable to the GW wavelength, as asteroids, and of objects with a non-trivial three-dimensional distribution, as stars in the Milky Way. Thus, it can be used to probe frequencies beyond PTA experiments, reaching the mHz GWs, also detectable by LISA. We forecast the capability of observing the astrometric deflection induced by a GWB evaluating the harmonic signal-to-noise ratio including correlations between different probes. We find an SNR greater than one for the relevant cases considered and as a consequence a promising Fisher forecast, suggesting a constraining power up to the percent level for a flat background.