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Limits on First Structure Formation from Pulsar Timing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2016

R. M. Shannon*
Affiliation:
CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Box 76 Epping NSW 1710, Australia email: [email protected] Inernational Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6012, Australia
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Abstract

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By monitoring the arrival times from millisecond pulsars for years to decades, it is possible to search for, or place limits on, nanohertz frequency gravitational radiation. The most promising source of gravitational waves in this band is a stochastic background emitted from a population of supermassive black hole binaries. As these binaries are the direct product of of galaxy mergers and the properties of the SMBHs correlated strongly with their host galaxies, the gravitational wave emission of the binaries can be used to study how galaxies evolve. Here I discuss how pulsar timing can be used to search for gravitational waves, and how limits on the strength of the background are being used to challenge models of supermassive black hole formation and evolution.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

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