High Precision Pulsar Timing: Effects of ISM Correction Schemes

Details High Precision Pulsar Timing: Effects of ISM Correction Schemes High Precision Pulsar Timing: Effects of ISM Correction Schemes

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21914615k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #146.15

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Pulsar timing arrays are one of the leading methods in the search for gravitational waves (GWs). However a significant issue facing this method is the effect of the interstellar medium (ISM). There are multiple methodologies being used to correct for these effects but their efficacy has not been carefully studied. We conducted an initial study of biases induced by correcting for the interstellar medium. We simulated times of arrival (TOAs) with white noise and added ISM delays. We measure the ISM effects as is done with normal data, and created a model of these effects using polynomial fitting. This modeling method is most commonly used in the European Pulsar Timing Array. We then remove these measured ISM effects and compare final and initial TOAs. Ideally they should be the same; however, the differences between the 'corrected' TOAs and original TOAs reveal the weaknesses of this method. In preliminary results we concluded that the higher order polynomials do a better job, yet there is a limit as to how high an order one can use. We also found no significant systematic parameter bias induced by using this method. However, it is clear that certain parameters are more affected by this process of correction. The parameters most affected were the frequency and frequency derivative of the pulsar, but biases in these parameters are not important because the power due to them gets removed in the standard timing analysis. We are continuing this research by comparing and contrasting ISM correction schemes, as well as studying the actual behavior of the ISM in more detail. This research is supported by an NSF-PIRE and an NSF-AST grant.

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