Using pulsars in a Galactic-scale gravitational-wave detector - Robert Ferdman (McGill University)

Using pulsars in a Galactic-scale gravitational-wave detector - Robert Ferdman (McGill University)

At the forefront of observation astrophysics is the effort to directly

detect gravitational waves (GWs), which remains a 'holy grail' in

validating Einstein's general theory of relativity.   This is an

international undertaking, involving many experiments by several large

collaborations.  In this talk, I will focus on the effort of the North

American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav)

collaboration, which uses the distances between Earth and several

millisecond-period pulsars as arms of a Galactic-scale GW detector. This

'Pulsar Timing Array' is sensitive to the nanohertz frequency region of

the GW spectrum, and is the only current method for studying GW emission

from supermassive black hole pairs. It is therefore complementary to the

larger frequency ranges probed by ground-based detectors, which will be

sensitive to sources such as merging neutron-star pairs.

I will discuss how we will be able to detect GWs with pulsar timing, and

describe recent progress.  I will also briefly describe ongoing and future

instrumentation and other observational considerations that will greatly

benefit this work.