The NANOGrav 15yr dataset: Customized Chromatic Noise Models

ORAL

Abstract

In 2023, NANOGrav, alongside pulsar timing arrays around the world, reported strong evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB). The spectral characterization of this emerging background remains noise model dependent. Dispersion delays in the interstellar medium and interplanetary medium are chromatic (radio-frequency dependent) noise sources which together can be up to 2 orders of magnitude louder than the GWB. In order to better characterize the GWB, we construct multiple sets of customized chromatic noise models for all of the pulsars in the NANOGrav 15yr dataset. We test the significance of multiple noise models for each pulsar and report results which demonstrate the impact of customized chromatic noise models on GWB parameter estimation and significance.

*Jeremy Baier is supported in part through NASA and Oregon Space Grant Consortium, cooperative agreement 80NSSC20M0035. This material is also based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2339728.

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Presenters

  • Jeremy G. Baier

    • Oregon State University

Authors

  • Jeremy G. Baier

    • Oregon State University

  • Jeffrey S Hazboun

    • Oregon State University

  • Bjorn Larsen

    • Yale University

  • Chiara Mingarelli

    • Yale University

  • Joseph Simon

    • University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Daniel J Oliver

    • Oregon State University

  • Kalista Wayt

    • Oregon State University