Detecting Gravitational Waves of Alternative Theories Using Pulsar Timing

Details Detecting Gravitational Waves of Alternative Theories Using Pulsar Timing Detecting Gravitational Waves of Alternative Theories Using Pulsar Timing

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...21110207l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #102.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.918

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

In contrast to general relativity, alternative theories of gravity predict up to a maximum of six polarization modes for gravitational waves. The angular distribution of pulsars in the sky makes pulsar timing a flexible tool for detecting gravitational waves of all possible polarizations. We give here an analysis of the sensitivity of pulsar timing to an isotropic stochastic gravitational wave background of waves with non-Einsteinian polarizations, and conclude that their detection may be feasible in the near future. We calculate the minimal configuration needed for a pulsar timing array to detect and to discriminate between all six modes. We conclude: if bi-weekly observations are made for five years with root-mean-square (RMS) timing accuracy of 100ns: 60 pulsars are needed to detect the longitudinal mode; 60 for the two spin-1 ``shear'' modes; and 40 for the spin 0 ``breathing'' mode. We confirm the previous estimate that 40 pulsars are needed for detection of the spin-2 ``transverse'' (Einsteinian) polarizations. If 100 pulsars are observed, the discrimination between different modes will be feasible.

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