Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the Lack of Resolvable Sources in the NANOGrav 15-yr Dataset

arXiv:2609.32306 · astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.GA · Submitted 2026-09-26 · Read on arXiv

astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.GA

Submitted: 2026-09-26

Updated: 2026-09-26

Code: https://github.com/bencebecsy/pta

Terminology

• Degeneracy — 4× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Abundance — 3× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Velocity Dispersion — 3× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• AGN — 2× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Grant — 2× in this paper
• pulsar timing arrays — 2× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) — 1× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Adam — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Anti-correlation — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Consistency — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Core — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Distribution Shift — 1× in this paper · explained in 5 episodes
• Markov Chain Monte Carlo — 1× in this paper
• N-body simulations — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Trace — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes

Sources

• The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Impacts of Customized Chromatic Noise Models on Gravitational Wave Analyses
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array V. Search for continuous gravitational wave signals
• An "inside-out" approach to modeling supermassive black hole binary inspiral
• A Foundation for Gravitational-Wave Population Inference within the LISA Global Fit
• Eight New Ultramassive Black Hole Masses confirm Best Correlation with Galaxy Core Sizes
• A Joint Optimal Search for Gravitational Waves from Resolved and Unresolved Supermassive Binary Black Holes with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Core Scouring Dynamics and Gravitational Wave Consequences: Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binary Hardening
• The properties of the first continuous gravitational waves: Optimizing pulsar timing observations for supermassive black hole binary detection
• Bridging the Population Synthesis of Supermassive Binary Black Holes and the Gravitational Wave Background
• Gravitational Wave Measurement of the $M_\mathrm{BH}$-$M_\mathrm{bulge}$ Intrinsic Scatter at High Redshift
• Supermassive Black Holes and the Evolution of Galaxies
• Uncertainties in the supermassive black hole abundance and implications for the GW background
• The Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomer
• Hierarchical Inference of the Supermassive Black Hole Binary Merger Rates from Joint Searches using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation

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