Constraints on supermassive black hole binaries from NANOGrav

ORAL  · Invited

Abstract

Earlier this year NANOGrav, along with other pulsar timing arrays, announced strong evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background at nanohertz frequencies. For decades, such a signal has been predicted from binaries of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). I will present NANOGrav's recent data and our interpretation of the signal as produced by SMBH binaries. I will show that these GWs encode a wealth of new information about SMBH formation and evolution. Now, the race is on for the next expected measurements: detection of anisotropy in the GW background, and individual loud binaries. These measurements would confirm the origin of the GWs, provide a crucial testbed for the future LISA mission, and open a new multi-messenger window into the Universe.

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Publication: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023ApJ...952L..37A/abstract

Presenters

  • Luke Z Kelley

Authors

  • Luke Z Kelley

  • Kayhan Gultekin

    • University of Michigan

  • Joseph Simon

    • University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Laura Blecha

    • University of Florida

  • Maria Charisi

    • Vanderbilt Univ

  • Jessie Runnoe

    • Vanderbilt

  • Emiko Gardiner

    • UC Berkeley

  • William G Lamb

    • Vanderbilt

  • Jeremy M Wachter

    • Skidmore College

  • David Wright

    • Oregon State University
    • University of Central Florida