Abstract
High-precision pulsar timing measurements have been used1–4 to set upper limits on the flux of ultra-long period (T ⩾ 3 years) stochastic gravitational waves. The data used to produce the current limits appear to be limited by timing noise5,6 that is intrinsic to the pulsars. Recently, however, there have been very low noise timing observations7 of the 1.5-millisecond pulsar8. This suggests that significant sensitivity improvements in searches for ultra-low-frequency (ULF) gravitational waves may be possible. Here the effects of a heretofore secondary noise source—phase scintillations caused by interstellar electron density fluctuations—are calculated and the prospects for improved ULF gravitational wave measurements using pulsar timing are discussed.
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Armstrong, J. Interstellar scintillation and ultra-low-frequency gravitational wave observations. Nature 307, 527–528 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/307527a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/307527a0
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