Implications for the supermassive black hole binaries from the NANOGrav 15-year data set

Several pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations, including NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA, and CPTA, have announced the evidence for a stochastic signal consistent with a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are supposed to be the most promising gravitati...

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Published in:Science China. Physics, mechanics & astronomy mechanics & astronomy, 2023-12, Vol.66 (12), p.120402, Article 120402
Main Authors: Bi, Yan-Chen, Wu, Yu-Mei, Chen, Zu-Cheng, Huang, Qing-Guo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Black holes
Classical and Continuum Physics
Datasets
Detectors
Frequencies
Gravitational waves
Observations and Techniques
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Pulsars
Stars & galaxies
Supermassive black holes
Theoretical physics
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Summary:Several pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations, including NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA, and CPTA, have announced the evidence for a stochastic signal consistent with a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are supposed to be the most promising gravitational-wave (GW) sources for this signal. In this paper, we use the NANOGrav 15-year data set to constrain the parameter space in an astro-informed formation model for SMBHBs. Our results prefer a large turn-over eccentricity of the SMBHB orbit when GWs begin to dominate the SMBHB evolution. Furthermore, the SGWB spectrum is extrapolated to the space-borne GW detector frequency band by including inspiral-merge-cutoff phases of SMBHBs, indicating that the SGWB from SMBHBs should be detected by LISA, Taiji and TianQin in the near future.
ISSN:1674-7348
1869-1927
DOI:10.1007/s11433-023-2252-4