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

Blumer, H.; Kaplan, D. L.; Garver-Daniels, N.; Demorest, P. B.; Lynch, R. S.; Chen, S.; Kaiser, A. R.; Key, J. S.; Jones, M. L.; Arzoumanian, Z.; Nice, David J.; Stinebring, D. R.; Jennings, R. J.; Vallisneri, M.; Brazier, A.; Lee, V. S. H.; Chatterjee, S.; Lazio, T. J. W.; Ray, P. S.; Cromartie, H. T.; Stairs, I. H.; Spiewak, R.; Kelley, L. Z.; Ng, C.; Fonseca, E.; Ransom, S. M.; Hazboun, J. S.; Mingarelli, C. M. F.; Sun, J. P.; Simon, J.; Charisi, M.; DeCesar, M. E.; Laal, N.; Vigeland, S. J.; Turner, J. E.; Siemens, X.; Luo, J.; Mitridate, A.; Holgado, A. M.; Cornish, N. J.; Zurek, K.; McLaughlin, M. A.; Shapiro-Albert, B. J.; Stovall, K.; Lam, M. T.; Baker, P. T.; Cordes, J. M.; Swiggum, J. K.; Madison, D. R.; Taylor, S. R.; Good, D. C.; Crawford, F.; Brook, P. R.; Lorimer, D. R.; Witt, C. A.; Burke-Spolaor, S.; Pol, N. S.; Dolch, T.; Islo, K.; Ferrara, E. C.; Fiore, W.; Pennucci, T. T.; Gentile, P. A.; Becsy, B.; Ellis, J. A.

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.

Title	Searching for Gravitational Waves from Cosmological Phase Transitions with the NANOGrav 12.5-Year Dataset
Creator	Blumer, H.
	Kaplan, D. L.
	Garver-Daniels, N.
	Demorest, P. B.
	Lynch, R. S.
	Chen, S.
	Kaiser, A. R.
	Key, J. S.
	Jones, M. L.
	Arzoumanian, Z.
	Nice, David J.
	Stinebring, D. R.
	Jennings, R. J.
	Vallisneri, M.
	Brazier, A.
	Lee, V. S. H.
	Chatterjee, S.
	Lazio, T. J. W.
	Ray, P. S.
	Cromartie, H. T.
	Stairs, I. H.
	Spiewak, R.
	Kelley, L. Z.
	Ng, C.
	Fonseca, E.
	Ransom, S. M.
	Hazboun, J. S.
	Mingarelli, C. M. F.
	Sun, J. P.
	Simon, J.
	Charisi, M.
	DeCesar, M. E.
	Laal, N.
	Vigeland, S. J.
	Turner, J. E.
	Siemens, X.
	Luo, J.
	Mitridate, A.
	Holgado, A. M.
	Cornish, N. J.
	Zurek, K.
	McLaughlin, M. A.
	Shapiro-Albert, B. J.
	Stovall, K.
	Lam, M. T.
	Baker, P. T.
	Cordes, J. M.
	Swiggum, J. K.
	Madison, D. R.
	Taylor, S. R.
	Good, D. C.
	Crawford, F.
	Brook, P. R.
	Lorimer, D. R.
	Witt, C. A.
	Burke-Spolaor, S.
	Pol, N. S.
	Dolch, T.
	Islo, K.
	Ferrara, E. C.
	Fiore, W.
	Pennucci, T. T.
	Gentile, P. A.
	Becsy, B.
Ellis, J. A.
Publisher	Physical Review Letters
Academic Department	Physics
Division	Natural Sciences
Organization	Lafayette College
Date Issued	December 15, 2021
Date Available	2021-12-21
Type	Article
Language	English
Bibliographic Citation	Arzoumanian, Z., et al. (2021 Dec 15) "Searching for Gravitational Waves from Cosmological Phase Transitions with the NANOGrav 12.5-Year Dataset." Physical Review Letters 127: 251302.
Standard Identifier	DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302
Standard Identifier	Handle 10385/b5644s90g
Permalink	http://hdl.handle.net/10385/b5644s90g
Rights Statement	In Copyright
Rights Holders	American Physical Society