Binary system delays and timing noise in searches for gravitational waves from known pulsars

TL;DR

This paper discusses methods to account for binary system delays and timing noise in gravitational wave searches from known pulsars, improving detection accuracy for pulsars in binary systems like the Crab.

Contribution

It demonstrates how established binary models and updated ephemerides can be used to mitigate delays and noise in gravitational wave data analysis from pulsars.

Findings

Binary models effectively correct for Doppler and relativistic effects.

Updated ephemerides help compensate for timing noise.

Enhanced analysis methods improve gravitational wave detection sensitivity.

Abstract

The majority of fast millisecond pulsars are in binary systems, so that any periodic signal they emit is modulated by both Doppler and relativistic effects. Here we show how well-established binary models can be used to account for these effects in searches for gravitational waves from known pulsars within binary systems. A seperate issue affecting certain pulsar signals is that of timing noise and we show how this, with particular reference to the Crab pulsar, can be compensated for by using regularly updated timing ephemerides.