Pulsar timing arrays

摘要

In the last decade, the use of an ensemble of radio pulsars to constrain the characteristic strain caused by a stochastic gravitational wave background has advanced the cause of detection of very low frequency gravitational waves (GWs) significantly. This electromagnetic means of GW detection, called Pulsar Timing Array (PTA), is reviewed in this paper. The principle of operation of PTA, the current operating PTAs and their status are presented along with a discussion of the main challenges in the detection of GWs using PTA.