Rapid construction of joint pulsar timing array data sets: the Lite method

ABSTRACT The International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA)’s second data release (IPTA DR2) combines decades of observations of 65 millisecond pulsars from 7 radio telescopes. IPTA data sets should be the most sensitive data sets to nanohertz gravitational waves (GWs), but take years to assemble, often excluding valuable recent data. To address this, we introduce the IPTA ‘Lite’ analysis, where a Figure of Merit is used to select an optimal PTA data set to analyse for each pulsar, enabling immediate access to new data and preliminary results prior to full combination. We test the capabilities of the Lite analysis using IPTA DR2, finding that ‘DR2 Lite’ can be used to detect the common red noise process with an amplitude of $A = 4.8^{+1.8}_{-1.8} \times 10^{-15}$ at $\gamma = 13/3$. This amplitude is slightly large in comparison to the combined analysis, and likely biased high as DR2 Lite is more sensitive to systematic errors from individual pulsars than the full data set. Furthermore, although there is no strong evidence for Hellings-Downs correlations in IPTA DR2, we still find the full data set is better at resolving Hellings-Downs correlations than DR2 Lite. Alongside the Lite analysis, we also find that analysing a subset of pulsars from IPTA DR2, available at a hypothetical ‘early’ stage of combination (EDR2), yields equally competitive results as the full data set. Looking ahead, the Lite method will enable rapid synthesis of the latest PTA data, offering preliminary GW constraints before the superior full data set combinations are available.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2025-08-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1420
Primary Topic
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Rapid construction of joint pulsar timing array data sets: the Lite method

Bjorn Larsen, Ismaël Cognard, A. Chalumeau, R. N. Caballero et al.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
article

Rapid construction of joint pulsar timing array data sets: the Lite method

Bjorn Larsen, Ismaël Cognard, A. Chalumeau, R. N. Caballero, M. A. McLaughlin, Daniel J. Reardon, Timothy Dolch, Craig Russell, E. C. Ferrara, S. M. Ransom, Lorenzo Speri, David J. Nice, K. Liu, Michael T. Lam, Siyuan Chen, Deborah C. Good, Antoine Petiteau, J Wang, G. Shaifullah, V. Di Marco, M. Kramer, P. T. Baker, Zu-Cheng Chen, Innocent O. Eya, Chiara M. F. Mingarelli, Ajay Kapur, Jeffrey S. Hazboun, Levi Schult, Y Liu, Shubham Kala, Benetge B. P. Perera, John Antoniadis, H. Hu, J. Baier, Joseph Simon, G. Theureau, William G. Lamb, Debabrata Deb, Ankit Srivastava, Lei Zhang, Kyle A. Gersbach, J. Wang, T. Joseph W. Lazio
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT The International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA)’s second data release (IPTA DR2) combines decades of observations of 65 millisecond pulsars from 7 radio telescopes. IPTA data sets should be the most sensitive data sets to nanohertz gravitational waves (GWs), but take years to assemble, often excluding valuable recent data. To address this, we introduce the IPTA ‘Lite’ analysis, where a Figure of Merit is used to select an optimal PTA data set to analyse for each pulsar, enabling immediate access to new data and preliminary results prior to full combination. We test the capabilities of the Lite analysis using IPTA DR2, finding that ‘DR2 Lite’ can be used to detect the common red noise process with an amplitude of $A = 4.8^{+1.8}_{-1.8} \times 10^{-15}$ at $\gamma = 13/3$. This amplitude is slightly large in comparison to the combined analysis, and likely biased high as DR2 Lite is more sensitive to systematic errors from individual pulsars than the full data set. Furthermore, although there is no strong evidence for Hellings-Downs correlations in IPTA DR2, we still find the full data set is better at resolving Hellings-Downs correlations than DR2 Lite. Alongside the Lite analysis, we also find that analysing a subset of pulsars from IPTA DR2, available at a hypothetical ‘early’ stage of combination (EDR2), yields equally competitive results as the full data set. Looking ahead, the Lite method will enable rapid synthesis of the latest PTA data, offering preliminary GW constraints before the superior full data set combinations are available.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 542(4)
University of Central Florida (US), University of Nigeria (NG), West Virginia University (US), Université d'Orléans (FR), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Australia Telescope National Facility (AU), Planetary Science Institute (US), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), Oregon State University (US), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US), Australian Research Council (AU), Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (US), Widener University (US), Rochester Institute of Technology (US), Eureka College (US), Hunan Normal University (CN), Lafayette College (US), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Vanderbilt University (US), Peking University (CN), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (CN), Observatoire de Paris (FR), Lishui University (CN), Changsha Normal University (CN), Yale University (US), Hillsdale College (US), Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences (CN), ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (AU), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), Astrophysics Science Division (US), Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano Bicocca (IT), Eureka Scientific (US), Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari (IT), Virginia Transportation Research Council (US), Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE), National Astronomical Observatories (CN), Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers (FR), Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace (FR), European Space Research and Technology Centre (NL), Monash University (AU), Swinburne University of Technology (AU), Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IN), University of Milano-Bicocca (IT), University of Maryland, College Park (US), University of Montana (US), GLA University (IN), Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (US), Ruhr University Bochum (DE), Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (NL), Macquarie University (AU)
National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Oregon State University, Flatiron Health, European Commission, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université d'Orléans, Goddard Space Flight Center, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme, Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules, Division of Mathematical Sciences, HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council, Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province
Openalex Percentile: Top 84%
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.