Searching for Gravitational Waves from Cosmological Phase Transitions with the NANOGrav 12.5-Year Dataset

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302

Searching for Gravitational Waves from Cosmological Phase Transitions with the NANOGrav 12.5-Year Dataset

Physics and Astronomy

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Widener University
West Virginia University
Montana State University
Cornell University
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Vanderbilt University
CNRS
Université d'Orléans
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster
Lafayette College
George Mason University
Naval Research Laboratory
National Science Foundation
Hillsdale College
Eureka Scientific, Inc.
University of Maryland, College Park
McGill University
University of Washington
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Northwestern University
Oregon State University
Rochester Institute of Technology
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
University of Toronto
Simons Foundation
University of Connecticut
Eötvös Loránd University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

109 Scopus citations

Abstract

We search for a first-order phase transition gravitational wave signal in 45 pulsars from the NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset. We find that the data can be modeled in terms of a strong first order phase transition taking place at temperatures below the electroweak scale. However, we do not observe any strong preference for a phase-transition interpretation of the signal over the standard astrophysical interpretation in terms of supermassive black hole mergers; but we expect to gain additional discriminating power with future datasets, improving the signal to noise ratio and extending the sensitivity window to lower frequencies. An interesting open question is how well gravitational wave observatories could separate such signals.

Original language	English
Article number	A42
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	127
Issue number	25
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302
State	Published - Dec 17 2021

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10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302

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@article{91f7cb666f614918b2354b457b39b0a3,

title = "Searching for Gravitational Waves from Cosmological Phase Transitions with the NANOGrav 12.5-Year Dataset",

abstract = "We search for a first-order phase transition gravitational wave signal in 45 pulsars from the NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset. We find that the data can be modeled in terms of a strong first order phase transition taking place at temperatures below the electroweak scale. However, we do not observe any strong preference for a phase-transition interpretation of the signal over the standard astrophysical interpretation in terms of supermassive black hole mergers; but we expect to gain additional discriminating power with future datasets, improving the signal to noise ratio and extending the sensitivity window to lower frequencies. An interesting open question is how well gravitational wave observatories could separate such signals.",

author = "Zaven Arzoumanian and Baker, \{Paul T.\} and Harsha Blumer and Bence B{\'e}csy and Adam Brazier and Brook, \{Paul R.\} and Sarah Burke-Spolaor and Maria Charisi and Shami Chatterjee and Siyuan Chen and Cordes, \{James M.\} and Cornish, \{Neil J.\} and Fronefield Crawford and Cromartie, \{H. Thankful\} and Decesar, \{Megan E.\} and Demorest, \{Paul B.\} and Timothy Dolch and Ellis, \{Justin A.\} and Ferrara, \{Elizabeth C.\} and William Fiore and Emmanuel Fonseca and Nathan Garver-Daniels and Gentile, \{Peter A.\} and Good, \{Deborah C.\} and Hazboun, \{Jeffrey S.\} and Holgado, \{A. Miguel\} and Kristina Islo and Jennings, \{Ross J.\} and Jones, \{Megan L.\} and Kaiser, \{Andrew R.\} and Kaplan, \{David L.\} and Kelley, \{Luke Zoltan\} and Key, \{Joey Shapiro\} and Nima Laal and Lam, \{Michael T.\} and Lazio, \{T. Joseph W.\} and Lee, \{Vincent S.H.\} and Lorimer, \{Duncan R.\} and Jing Luo and Lynch, \{Ryan S.\} and Madison, \{Dustin R.\} and McLaughlin, \{Maura A.\} and Mingarelli, \{Chiara M.F.\} and Andrea Mitridate and Cherry Ng and Nice, \{David J.\} and Pennucci, \{Timothy T.\} and Pol, \{Nihan S.\} and Ransom, \{Scott M.\} and Ray, \{Paul S.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 American Physical Society. ",

year = "2021",

month = dec,

day = "17",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302",

language = "English",

volume = "127",

journal = "Physical Review Letters",

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publisher = "American Physical Society",

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T1 - Searching for Gravitational Waves from Cosmological Phase Transitions with the NANOGrav 12.5-Year Dataset

AU - Arzoumanian, Zaven

AU - Baker, Paul T.

AU - Blumer, Harsha

AU - Bécsy, Bence

AU - Brazier, Adam

AU - Brook, Paul R.

AU - Burke-Spolaor, Sarah

AU - Charisi, Maria

AU - Chatterjee, Shami

AU - Chen, Siyuan

AU - Cordes, James M.

AU - Cornish, Neil J.

AU - Crawford, Fronefield

AU - Cromartie, H. Thankful

AU - Decesar, Megan E.

AU - Demorest, Paul B.

AU - Dolch, Timothy

AU - Ellis, Justin A.

AU - Ferrara, Elizabeth C.

AU - Fiore, William

AU - Fonseca, Emmanuel

AU - Garver-Daniels, Nathan

AU - Gentile, Peter A.

AU - Good, Deborah C.

AU - Hazboun, Jeffrey S.

AU - Holgado, A. Miguel

AU - Islo, Kristina

AU - Jennings, Ross J.

AU - Jones, Megan L.

AU - Kaiser, Andrew R.

AU - Kaplan, David L.

AU - Kelley, Luke Zoltan

AU - Key, Joey Shapiro

AU - Laal, Nima

AU - Lam, Michael T.

AU - Lazio, T. Joseph W.

AU - Lee, Vincent S.H.

AU - Lorimer, Duncan R.

AU - Luo, Jing

AU - Lynch, Ryan S.

AU - Madison, Dustin R.

AU - McLaughlin, Maura A.

AU - Mingarelli, Chiara M.F.

AU - Mitridate, Andrea

AU - Ng, Cherry

AU - Nice, David J.

AU - Pennucci, Timothy T.

AU - Pol, Nihan S.

AU - Ransom, Scott M.

AU - Ray, Paul S.

PY - 2021/12/17

Y1 - 2021/12/17

N2 - We search for a first-order phase transition gravitational wave signal in 45 pulsars from the NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset. We find that the data can be modeled in terms of a strong first order phase transition taking place at temperatures below the electroweak scale. However, we do not observe any strong preference for a phase-transition interpretation of the signal over the standard astrophysical interpretation in terms of supermassive black hole mergers; but we expect to gain additional discriminating power with future datasets, improving the signal to noise ratio and extending the sensitivity window to lower frequencies. An interesting open question is how well gravitational wave observatories could separate such signals.

AB - We search for a first-order phase transition gravitational wave signal in 45 pulsars from the NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset. We find that the data can be modeled in terms of a strong first order phase transition taking place at temperatures below the electroweak scale. However, we do not observe any strong preference for a phase-transition interpretation of the signal over the standard astrophysical interpretation in terms of supermassive black hole mergers; but we expect to gain additional discriminating power with future datasets, improving the signal to noise ratio and extending the sensitivity window to lower frequencies. An interesting open question is how well gravitational wave observatories could separate such signals.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85122359485

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302

M3 - Article

C2 - 35029450

AN - SCOPUS:85122359485

SN - 0031-9007

VL - 127

JO - Physical Review Letters

JF - Physical Review Letters

IS - 25

M1 - A42

ER -

Searching for Gravitational Waves from Cosmological Phase Transitions with the NANOGrav 12.5-Year Dataset

Abstract

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