Gravitational-wave limits from pulsar timing constrain supermassive black hole evolution

Shannon, R.; Ravi, V.; Coles, W.; Hobbs, G.; Keith, M.; Manchester, R.; Wyithe, J.; Bailes, M.; Bhat, Ramesh; Burke-Spolaor, S.; Khoo, J.; Levin, Y.; Oslowski, S.; Sarkissian, J.; van Straten, W.; Verbiest, J.; Wang, J.-B.

doi:10.1126/science.1238012

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Authors

Shannon, R.

Ravi, V.

Coles, W.

Hobbs, G.

Keith, M.

Manchester, R.

Wyithe, J.

Bailes, M.

Bhat, Ramesh

Burke-Spolaor, S.

Khoo, J.

Levin, Y.

Oslowski, S.

Sarkissian, J.

van Straten, W.

Verbiest, J.

Wang, J.-B.

Date

2013

Type

Journal Article

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Citation

Shannon, R. and Ravi, V. and Coles, W. and Hobbs, G. and Keith, M. and Manchester, R. and Wyithe, J. and Bailes, M. and Bhat, N. and Burke-Spolaor, S. and Khoo, J. and Levin, Y. and Oslowski, S. and Sarkissian, J. and van Straten, W. and Verbiest, J. and Wang, J.-B. 2013. Gravitational-wave limits from pulsar timing constrain supermassive black hole evolution. Science. 342: pp. 334-337.

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Science

Abstract

The formation and growth processes of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are not well constrained. SMBH population models, however, provide specific predictions for the properties of the gravitational-wave background (GWB) from binary SMBHs in merging galaxies throughout the Universe. Using observations from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array, we constrain the fractional GWB energy density with 95% confidence to be OmegaGW(H0/73 km s-1 Mpc -1)2 < 1.3 x 10-9 at a frequency of 2.8 nHz, which is approximately a factor of six more stringent than previous limits. We compare our limit to models of the SMBH population and find inconsistencies at confidence levels between 46% and 91%. For example, the standard galaxy formation model implemented in the Millennium simulations is inconsistent with our limit with 50% probability.