Nature Communications (Feb 2018)

No tension between assembly models of super massive black hole binaries and pulsar observations

  • Hannah Middleton,
  • Siyuan Chen,
  • Walter Del Pozzo,
  • Alberto Sesana,
  • Alberto Vecchio

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-02916-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Pulsar timing arrays enable the search for the isotropic gravitational-wave (GW) background originating from super massive black hole binary populations, but impose a stringent upper limit on the GW characteristic amplitude. Here, the authors use Bayesian hierarchical modelling applied to a range of astrophysical scenarios to revisit the implications of this upper limit.