Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations

Ryan M Shannon; Vikram Ravi; Lindley Lentati; Paul Daniel Lasky; George B Hobbs; Matthew Kerr; Richard Norman Manchester; William A Coles; Yuri Levin; Matthew Bailes; N D Ramesh Bhat; Sarah Burke-Spolaor; Shi Dai; Michael Keith; Stefan Oslowski; Daniel Reardon; Willem van Straten; Lawrence Toomey; J B Wang; Linqing Wen; J Stuart B Wyithe; Xing Jiang Zhu

doi:10.1126/science.aab1910

Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations

Ryan M Shannon, Vikram Ravi, Lindley Lentati, Paul Daniel Lasky, George B Hobbs, Matthew Kerr, Richard Norman Manchester, William A Coles, Yuri Levin, Matthew Bailes, N D Ramesh Bhat, Sarah Burke-Spolaor, Shi Dai, Michael Keith, Stefan Oslowski, Daniel Reardon, Willem van Straten, Lawrence Toomey, J B Wang, Linqing WenJ Stuart B Wyithe, Xing Jiang Zhu

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

353 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Gravitational waves are expected to be radiated by supermassive black hole binaries formed during galaxy mergers. A stochastic superposition of gravitational waves from all such binary systems would modulate the arrival times of pulses from radio pulsars. Using observations of millisecond pulsars obtained with the Parkes radio telescope, we constrained the characteristic amplitude of this background, Ac,yr, to be <1.0 × 10−15 with 95% confidence. This limit excludes predicted ranges for Ac,yr from current models with 91 to 99.7% probability. We conclude that binary evolution is either stalled or dramatically accelerated by galactic-center environments and that higher-cadence and shorter-wavelength observations would be more sensitive to gravitational waves

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1522-1525
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	349
Issue number	6255
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aab1910
Publication status	Published - 2015

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10.1126/science.aab1910

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Shannon, R. M., Ravi, V., Lentati, L., Lasky, P. D., Hobbs, G. B., Kerr, M., Manchester, R. N., Coles, W. A., Levin, Y., Bailes, M., Bhat, N. D. R., Burke-Spolaor, S., Dai, S., Keith, M., Oslowski, S., Reardon, D., van Straten, W., Toomey, L., Wang, J. B., ... Zhu, X. J. (2015). Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations. Science, 349(6255), 1522-1525. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aab1910

@article{2d06a0e84b2242a7af6e44a568afc537,

title = "Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations",

abstract = "Gravitational waves are expected to be radiated by supermassive black hole binaries formed during galaxy mergers. A stochastic superposition of gravitational waves from all such binary systems would modulate the arrival times of pulses from radio pulsars. Using observations of millisecond pulsars obtained with the Parkes radio telescope, we constrained the characteristic amplitude of this background, Ac,yr, to be <1.0 × 10−15 with 95% confidence. This limit excludes predicted ranges for Ac,yr from current models with 91 to 99.7% probability. We conclude that binary evolution is either stalled or dramatically accelerated by galactic-center environments and that higher-cadence and shorter-wavelength observations would be more sensitive to gravitational waves",

author = "Shannon, {Ryan M} and Vikram Ravi and Lindley Lentati and Lasky, {Paul Daniel} and Hobbs, {George B} and Matthew Kerr and Manchester, {Richard Norman} and Coles, {William A} and Yuri Levin and Matthew Bailes and Bhat, {N D Ramesh} and Sarah Burke-Spolaor and Shi Dai and Michael Keith and Stefan Oslowski and Daniel Reardon and {van Straten}, Willem and Lawrence Toomey and Wang, {J B} and Linqing Wen and Wyithe, {J Stuart B} and Zhu, {Xing Jiang}",

year = "2015",

doi = "10.1126/science.aab1910",

language = "English",

volume = "349",

pages = "1522--1525",

journal = "Science",

issn = "0036-8075",

publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)",

number = "6255",

}

Shannon, RM, Ravi, V, Lentati, L, Lasky, PD, Hobbs, GB, Kerr, M, Manchester, RN, Coles, WA, Levin, Y, Bailes, M, Bhat, NDR, Burke-Spolaor, S, Dai, S, Keith, M, Oslowski, S, Reardon, D, van Straten, W, Toomey, L, Wang, JB, Wen, L, Wyithe, JSB & Zhu, XJ 2015, 'Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations', Science, vol. 349, no. 6255, pp. 1522-1525. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aab1910

TY - JOUR

T1 - Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations

AU - Shannon, Ryan M

AU - Ravi, Vikram

AU - Lentati, Lindley

AU - Lasky, Paul Daniel

AU - Hobbs, George B

AU - Kerr, Matthew

AU - Manchester, Richard Norman

AU - Coles, William A

AU - Levin, Yuri

AU - Bailes, Matthew

AU - Bhat, N D Ramesh

AU - Burke-Spolaor, Sarah

AU - Dai, Shi

AU - Keith, Michael

AU - Oslowski, Stefan

AU - Reardon, Daniel

AU - van Straten, Willem

AU - Toomey, Lawrence

AU - Wang, J B

AU - Wen, Linqing

AU - Wyithe, J Stuart B

AU - Zhu, Xing Jiang

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Gravitational waves are expected to be radiated by supermassive black hole binaries formed during galaxy mergers. A stochastic superposition of gravitational waves from all such binary systems would modulate the arrival times of pulses from radio pulsars. Using observations of millisecond pulsars obtained with the Parkes radio telescope, we constrained the characteristic amplitude of this background, Ac,yr, to be <1.0 × 10−15 with 95% confidence. This limit excludes predicted ranges for Ac,yr from current models with 91 to 99.7% probability. We conclude that binary evolution is either stalled or dramatically accelerated by galactic-center environments and that higher-cadence and shorter-wavelength observations would be more sensitive to gravitational waves

AB - Gravitational waves are expected to be radiated by supermassive black hole binaries formed during galaxy mergers. A stochastic superposition of gravitational waves from all such binary systems would modulate the arrival times of pulses from radio pulsars. Using observations of millisecond pulsars obtained with the Parkes radio telescope, we constrained the characteristic amplitude of this background, Ac,yr, to be <1.0 × 10−15 with 95% confidence. This limit excludes predicted ranges for Ac,yr from current models with 91 to 99.7% probability. We conclude that binary evolution is either stalled or dramatically accelerated by galactic-center environments and that higher-cadence and shorter-wavelength observations would be more sensitive to gravitational waves

UR - http://www.sciencemag.org.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/content/349/6255/1522.full.pdf

U2 - 10.1126/science.aab1910

DO - 10.1126/science.aab1910

M3 - Article

VL - 349

SP - 1522

EP - 1525

JO - Science

JF - Science

SN - 0036-8075

IS - 6255

ER -

Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations

Abstract

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An upgraded pulsar timing array for gravitational wave detection

Gravitational-wave astrophysics of binary black holes

Cite this

Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations

Abstract

Access to Document

Other files and links

Projects

An upgraded pulsar timing array for gravitational wave detection

Gravitational-wave astrophysics of binary black holes

Cite this