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Gravitational wave hotspots: Ranking potential locations of single-source gravitational wave emission

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
; ; ;  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17609 (United States)
  2. University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 9DL (United Kingdom)
  3. Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy and Center for Advanced Radio Astronomy, University of Texas at Brownsville, Brownsville, TX 78520 (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The steadily improving sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) suggests that gravitational waves (GWs) from supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) systems in the nearby universe will be detectable sometime during the next decade. Currently, PTAs assume an equal probability of detection from every sky position, but as evidence grows for a non-isotropic distribution of sources, is there a most likely sky position for a detectable single source of GWs? In this paper, a collection of Galactic catalogs is used to calculate various metrics related to the detectability of a single GW source resolvable above a GW background, assuming that every galaxy has the same probability of containing an SMBHB. Our analyses of these data reveal small probabilities that one of these sources is currently in the PTA band, but as sensitivity is improved regions of consistent probability density are found in predictable locations, specifically around local galaxy clusters.
OSTI ID:
22351500
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 784; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BINARY STARS
BLACK HOLES
CATALOGS
DENSITY
DETECTION
DISTRIBUTION
EMISSION
GALAXY CLUSTERS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
MILKY WAY
PULSARS
SENSITIVITY
SKY
UNIVERSE