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Detecting gravitational waves from the Galactic center with pulsar timing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2014

Alak Ray ,
Bence Kocsis  and
Simon Portegies Zwart
Alak Ray
Affiliation:
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
Bence Kocsis
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
Simon Portegies Zwart
Affiliation:
Sterrewacht Leiden, Leiden University, P. O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
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Abstract

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Black holes orbiting the supermassive black hole (SMBH) Sgr A* in the Galactic center (GC) of the Milky Way generate gravitational waves (GW). The resulting spectrum, due to stars and black holes (BHs), is continuous below 40 nHz while individual BHs within about 200 AU of the central SMBH stick out in the spectrum at higher frequencies. The GWs can be detected by timing radio pulsars within a few parsecs of this region. Future observations with the Square Kilometer Array of such pulsars with sufficient timing accuracy may be sensitive to signals from intermediate mass BHs (IMBH) in a 3 year observation baseline. The recent detection of radio pulsations from the magnetar SGR J1745–29 very near the GC opens up the possibilities of detecting millisecond pulsars (which can be used as probes of the GWs) through lines of sight with only moderate pulse and angular broadening due to scattering.

Keywords

galaxies: nuclei – gravitational waves – pulsars
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 9 , Symposium S303: The Galactic Center: Feeding and Feedback in a Normal Galactic Nucleus , October 2013 , pp. 419 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2014 

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