A pulsar timing array, but instead of actual real pulsars, send out a bunch of precise atomic clocks in all directions of the Solar System and measure their 'ticks' at a central receiving station.
This idea reported in this pre-print aims to assess the 0.1–10 Hz GW band.
Yesterday I gave my first PhD talk at the Astronomical Society of Australia’s Annual Science Meeting on my fav millisecond pulsar - PSR J1713+0747.
The pulsar that threw a tantrum!
Millisecond pulsars are used in pulsar timing arrays as they’re considered stable rotators over the long term. That is vote to helping us search for gravitational wave backgrounds - the big news that we announced last week.
But this very well know millisecond pulsar decided to undergo a massive magnetospheric reconfiguration in 2021 - only the second millisecond pulsar that we know off to exhibit this strange behavior!
In my PhD I will be exploring to see why this happened and if other millisecond pulsars might be doing this on a smaller scale. Maybe they’re not do stable, after all … ask me again in three years!
I am excited for the upcoming news from pulsar timing arrays on their search for #GravitationalWaves. Results from International Pulsar Timing Array teams will be shared at 0:00 UTC. I don't know what these will be. However… 1/🧵
Did you know, we have a detector the size of the Galaxy?! But what the heck can we use it for?
Well, we're looking for the gravitational wave background, and we're using pulsars to do it!
In part three of this series, I take a dive into what Pulsar Timing Arrays are, some of the challenges they face & how they can improve their sensitivity.
Well, since we are bracing for the impact of an imminent major announcement on pulsars and, maybe, some gravitational wave background, why not enjoy this 2004 special Science Magazine issue on pulsars!