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arXiv 1306.5394astro-ph.HEgr-qc
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脉冲星定时阵表征引力波随机背景各向异性

Characterising gravitational wave stochastic background anisotropy with Pulsar Timing Arrays

Chiara M. F. Mingarelli, Trevor Sidery, Ilya Mandel, Alberto Vecchio

摘要:

探测随机引力波背景,特别是来自单个不可分辨的超大质量黑洞双星系统的辐射,是脉冲星定时阵列的主要目标之一。在假设背景辐射是各向同性的情况下,对这些信号设定了越来越严格的上限。然而,可能存在一定程度的各向异性,并且在不同角度尺度下的功率的表征携带重要信息。我们表明,各向同性背景的标准分析可以概括在一个概念上简单的方式的情况下,一般各向异性的背景辐射分解成多极矩的天空上的引力波功率的角分布。我们引入了广义重叠减少函数的概念,该函数考虑了各向异性多极子对脉冲星定时阵列定时信号的相关性的影响。在搜索以通用各向异性为特征的信号时,广义重叠减少函数起到用于各向同性辐射的所谓的海林斯和唐斯曲线的作用。我们计算的一般水平的各向异性和脉冲星定时阵列配置的广义重叠减少功能。我们还提供了一个数量级的各向异性的水平,可以预期在超大质量黑洞二元系统产生的背景估计。

英文摘要:

Detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background, particularly radiation from individually unresolvable super-massive black hole binary systems, is one of the primary targets for Pulsar Timing Arrays. Increasingly more stringent upper limits are being set on these signals under the assumption that the background radiation is isotropic. However, some level of anisotropy may be present and the characterisation of the power at different angular scales carries important information. We show that the standard analysis for isotropic backgrounds can be generalised in a conceptually straightforward way to the case of generic anisotropic background radiation by decomposing the angular distribution of the gravitational wave power on the sky into multipole moments. We introduce the concept of generalised overlap reduction functions which characterise the effect of the anisotropy multipoles on the correlation of the timing residuals from the pulsars timed by a Pulsar Timing Array. In a search for a signal characterised by a generic anisotropy, the generalised overlap reduction functions play the role of the so-called Hellings and Downs curve used for isotropic radiation. We compute the generalised overlap reduction functions for a generic level of anisotropy and Pulsar Timing Array configuration. We also provide an order of magnitude estimate of the level of anisotropy that can be expected in the background generated by super-massive black hole binary systems.

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