PIRSA:12110044

Detecting Gravitational Waves with Millisecond Pulsars

Demorest, P. (2012). Detecting Gravitational Waves with Millisecond Pulsars. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/12110044

Demorest, Paul. Detecting Gravitational Waves with Millisecond Pulsars. Perimeter Institute, Nov. 15, 2012, https://pirsa.org/12110044 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:12110044,
            doi = {10.48660/12110044},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/12110044},
            author = {Demorest, Paul},
            keywords = {Strong Gravity},
            language = {en},
            title = {Detecting Gravitational Waves with Millisecond Pulsars},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2012},
            month = {nov},
            note = {PIRSA:12110044 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Paul Demorest National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)

DOI 10.48660/12110044
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

Millisecond spin-period radio pulsars provide us with unique astronomical "laboratories" for exploring fundamental physics in a variety of ways -- from the physics of matter at super-nuclear density, to experimental tests of gravity. They have also provided the only experimental evidence so far for the existence of gravitational waves (GW).  A set of millisecond pulsars acting as precise astronomical clocks may also be used as a direct GW detector, sensitive to the nanohertz-frequency GW expected to be emitted by supermassive black hole binary systems or other more exotic sources.  In this talk I will present the project status and recent GW upper limits from the NANOGrav project.  I will also discuss expected near-future improvements in the measurement, including recent work aimed at better characterizing and mitigating the effect of multi-path propagation effects in the interstellar medium.