The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the Gravitational-wave Background

Date

2023-08-01

Author

Agazie, Gabriella
Anumarlapudi, Akash
Archibald, Anne M.
Baker, Paul T.
Becsy, Bence
Blecha, Laura
Bonilla, Alexander
Brazier, Adam
Brook, Paul
Burke-Spolaor, Sarah
Burnette, Rand
Case, Robin
Casey-Clyde, J. Andrew
Charisi, Maria
Chatterjee, Shami
Chatziioannou, Katerina
Cheeseboro, Belinda D.
Chen, Siyuan
Cohen, Tyler
Cordes, James M.
Cornish, Neil J.
Crawford, Fronefield
Cromartie, H. Thankful
Crowter, Kathryn
Cutler, Curt E.
D'Orazio, Daniel J.
DeCesar, Megan E.
DeGan, Dallas
Demorest, Paul B.
Deng, Heling
Dolch, Timothy
Drachler, Brendan
Ferrara, Elizabeth
Fiore, William
Fonseca, Emmanuel
Freedman, Gabriel E.
Gardiner, Emiko
Garver-Daniels, Nate
Gentile, Peter A.
Gersbach, Kyle A.
Glaser, Joseph
Good, Deborah C.
Gultekin, Kayhan
Hazboun, Jeffrey
Hourihane, Sophie J.
Islo, Kristina
Jennings, Ross L.
Johnson, Aaron
Jones, Megan L.
Kaiser, Andrew R.
Kaplan, David L.
Kelley, Luke Zoltan
Kerr, Matthew
Key, Joey S.
Laal, Nima
Lam, Michael T.
Lamb, William G.
Lazio, T. Joseph W.
Lewandowska, Natalia B.
Littenberg, Tyson
Liu, Tingting
Luo, Jing
Lynch, Ryan S.
Ma, Chung-Pei
Madison, Dustin R.
McEwen, Alexander
McKee, James A.
McLaughlin, Maura A.
McMann, Natasha
Meyers, Bradley M.
Meyers, Patrick M.
Mingarelli, Chiara M. F.
Mitridate, Andrea
Natarajan, Priyamvada
Ng, Cherry J.
Nice, David J.
Ocker, Stella Koch
Olum, Ken T.
Pennucci, Timothy
Perera, Benetge B. P.
Petrov, Polina
Pol, Nihan S.
Radovan, Henri A.
Ransom, Scott M.
Ray, Paul S.
Romano, Joseph C.
Runnoe, Jessie C.
Sardesai, Shashwat C.
Schmiedekamp, Ann
Schmiedekamp, Carl
Schmitz, Kai
Schult, Levi
Shapiro-Albert, Brent
Siemens, Xavier
Simon, Joseph
Siwek, Magdalena S.
Stairs, Ingrid H.
Stinebring, Daniel
Stovall, Kevin
Sun, Jerry P.
Susobhanan, Abhimanyu
Swiggum, Joseph K.
Taylor, Jacob
Taylor, Stephen R.
Turner, Jacob E.
Ünal, Caner
Vallisneri, Michele
Vigeland, Sarah J.
Wachter, Jeremy M.
Wahl, Haley M.
Wang, Qiaohong
Witt, Caitlin
Wright, David
Young, Olivia

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The NANOGrav 15 yr data set shows evidence for the presence of a low-frequency gravitational-wave background (GWB). While many physical processes can source such low-frequency gravitational waves, here we analyze the signal as coming from a population of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries distributed throughout the Universe. We show that astrophysically motivated models of SMBH binary populations are able to reproduce both the amplitude and shape of the observed low-frequency gravitational-wave spectrum. While multiple model variations are able to reproduce the GWB spectrum at our current measurement precision, our results highlight the importance of accurately modeling binary evolution for producing realistic GWB spectra. Additionally, while reasonable parameters are able to reproduce the 15 yr observations, the implied GWB amplitude necessitates either a large number of parameters to be at the edges of expected values or a small number of parameters to be notably different from standard expectations. While we are not yet able to definitively establish the origin of the inferred GWB signal, the consistency of the signal with astrophysical expectations offers a tantalizing prospect for confirming that SMBH binaries are able to form, reach subparsec separations, and eventually coalesce. As the significance grows over time, higher-order features of the GWB spectrum will definitively determine the nature of the GWB and allow for novel constraints on SMBH populations.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/116557

Collections

Department of Physics, Article