Red noise and evolving signals: a complete frequentist approach to supermassive black hole binary searches with pulsar timing arrays

arXiv:2606.07330 · gr-qc, astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.IM · Submitted 2026-06-05 · Read on arXiv

gr-qc, astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.IM

Submitted: 2026-06-05

Updated: 2026-09-23

Code: https://github.com/mfalxa/fakepta

Terminology

• Pulsar Timing Array — 11× in this paper
• Accuracy — 4× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Decoupling — 3× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test — 3× in this paper
• Particle Swarm Optimization — 3× in this paper
• Alignment — 2× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Benchmark — 2× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Solar System Barycenter — 2× in this paper
• Bayesian Framework — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Chinese Pulsar Timing Array — 1× in this paper
• Consistency — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Core — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Curse of Dimensionality — 1× in this paper · explained in 6 episodes
• Degeneracy — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• European Pulsar Timing Array — 1× in this paper
• Maximum Likelihood Estimators — 1× in this paper
• Objective Function — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Parkes Pulsar Timing Array — 1× in this paper
• Robustness — 1× in this paper · explained in 5 episodes
• pulsar timing arrays — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes

Sources

• Extending the frequency reach of pulsar timing array based gravitational wave search without high cadence observations
• Detection and parameter estimation of supermassive black hole ringdown signals using a pulsar timing array
• Pulsar Timing Array Observations of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Pulsar Timing Array Based Search for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in the Square Kilometer Array Era
• Hierarchical search method for gravitational waves from stellar-mass binary black holes in noisy space-based detector data

Related papers

• Tests of General Relativity with Einstein Telescope
• Unitary quantum matter-bounce in a universe with a positive cosmological constant
• Quasi-pole quintessential inflation in metric-affine gravity
• Dynamical tidal response of neutron stars: From effective field theory to gravitational waveforms
• Limits of the Rastall--Einstein Equivalence: Matter-Action Compatibility, FLRW Dynamics, and Exceptional Sectors
• Boson star-black hole binaries: initial data and head-on collisions