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

Zaven Arzoumanian; Paul T Baker; Harsha Blumer; Bence Bécsy; Adam Brazier; Paul R Brook; Sarah Burke-Spolaor; Maria Charisi; Shami Chatterjee; Siyuan Chen; James M Cordes; Neil J Cornish; Fronefield Crawford; H Thankful Cromartie; Megan E DeCesar; Paul B Demorest; Timothy Dolch; Justin A Ellis; Elizabeth C Ferrara; William Fiore; Emmanuel Fonseca; Nathan Garver-Daniels; Peter A Gentile; Deborah C Good; Jeffrey S Hazboun; A Miguel Holgado; Kristina Islo; Ross J Jennings; Megan L Jones; Andrew R Kaiser; David L Kaplan; Luke Zoltan Kelley; Joey Shapiro Key; Nima Laal; Michael T Lam; T Joseph W Lazio; Vincent S H Lee; Duncan R Lorimer; Jing Luo; Ryan S Lynch; Dustin R Madison; Maura A McLaughlin; Chiara M F Mingarelli; Andrea Mitridate; Cherry Ng; David J Nice; Timothy T Pennucci; Nihan S Pol; Scott M Ransom; Paul S Ray; Brent J Shapiro-Albert; Xavier Siemens; Joseph Simon; Renée Spiewak; Ingrid H Stairs; Daniel R Stinebring; Kevin Stovall; Jerry P Sun; Joseph K Swiggum; Stephen R Taylor; Jacob E Turner; Michele Vallisneri; Sarah J Vigeland; Caitlin A Witt; Kathryn M Zurek; NANOGrav Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302

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

Phys Rev Lett. 2021 Dec 17;127(25):251302. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302.

Authors

Zaven Arzoumanian¹, Paul T Baker², Harsha Blumer^{3

4}, Bence Bécsy⁵, Adam Brazier^{6

7}, Paul R Brook^{3

4}, Sarah Burke-Spolaor^{3

4

8}, Maria Charisi⁹, Shami Chatterjee⁶, Siyuan Chen^{10

11

12}, James M Cordes⁶, Neil J Cornish⁵, Fronefield Crawford¹³, H Thankful Cromartie⁶, Megan E DeCesar^{14

15}, Paul B Demorest¹⁶, Timothy Dolch^{17

18}, Justin A Ellis¹⁹, Elizabeth C Ferrara^{20

21

22}, William Fiore^{3

4}, Emmanuel Fonseca²³, Nathan Garver-Daniels^{3

4}, Peter A Gentile^{3

4}, Deborah C Good²⁴, Jeffrey S Hazboun²⁵, A Miguel Holgado^{26

27}, Kristina Islo²⁸, Ross J Jennings⁶, Megan L Jones²⁸, Andrew R Kaiser^{3

4}, David L Kaplan²⁸, Luke Zoltan Kelley²⁹, Joey Shapiro Key²⁵, Nima Laal³⁰, Michael T Lam^{31

32}, T Joseph W Lazio³³, Vincent S H Lee³⁴, Duncan R Lorimer^{3

4}, Jing Luo³⁵, Ryan S Lynch³⁶, Dustin R Madison^{3

4}, Maura A McLaughlin^{3

4}, Chiara M F Mingarelli^{37

38}, Andrea Mitridate³⁴, Cherry Ng³⁹, David J Nice¹⁴, Timothy T Pennucci^{40

41}, Nihan S Pol^{3

4

9}, Scott M Ransom⁴⁰, Paul S Ray⁴², Brent J Shapiro-Albert^{3

4}, Xavier Siemens^{28

30}, Joseph Simon^{33

43}, Renée Spiewak⁴⁴, Ingrid H Stairs²⁴, Daniel R Stinebring⁴⁵, Kevin Stovall¹⁶, Jerry P Sun³⁰, Joseph K Swiggum¹⁴, Stephen R Taylor⁹, Jacob E Turner^{3

4}, Michele Vallisneri³³, Sarah J Vigeland²⁸, Caitlin A Witt^{3

4}, Kathryn M Zurek³⁴; NANOGrav Collaboration

Affiliations

¹ X-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Widener University, One University Place, Chester, Pennsylvania 19013, USA.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6315, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA.
⁴ Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, West Virginia University, Chestnut Ridge Research Building, Morgantown, West Virginia 26505, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, USA.
⁶ Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science and Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
⁷ Cornell Center for Advanced Computing, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
⁸ CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program, CIFAR, Toronto, Canada.
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA.
¹⁰ Station de Radioastronomie de Nancay, Observatoire de Paris, Universite PSL, CNRS, Universite d'Orleans, 18330 Nancay, France.
¹¹ FEMTO-ST Institut de recherche, Department of Time and Frequency, UBFC and CNRS, ENSMM, 25030 Besancon, France.
¹² Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environment et de l'Espace, LPC2E UMR7328, Universite d'Orleans, CNRS, 45071 Orleans, France.
¹³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Franklin & Marshall College, P.O. Box 3003, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Physics, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania 18042, USA.
¹⁵ George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA.
¹⁶ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 1003 Lopezville Road, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Physics, Hillsdale College, 33 E. College Street, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242, USA.
¹⁸ Eureka Scientific, Inc. 2452 Delmer Street, Suite 100, Oakland, California 94602-3017.
¹⁹ Infinia ML, 202 Rigsbee Avenue, Durham, North Carolina 27701, USA.
²⁰ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
²¹ Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
²² NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
²³ Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 University Street, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T8, Canada.
²⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada.
²⁵ University of Washington Bothell, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, Washington 98011, USA.
²⁶ Department of Astronomy and National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
²⁷ McWilliams Center for Cosmology and Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
²⁸ Center for Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA.
²⁹ Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
³⁰ Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA.
³¹ School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York 14623, USA.
³² Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York 14623, USA.
³³ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
³⁴ Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
³⁵ Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada.
³⁶ Green Bank Observatory, P.O. Box 2, Green Bank, West Virginia 24944, USA.
³⁷ Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 5th Avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA.
³⁸ Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, 196 Auditorium Road, U-3046, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3046, USA.
³⁹ Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 Saint George street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada.
⁴⁰ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, USA.
⁴¹ Institute of Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/A, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.
⁴² Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375-5352, USA.
⁴³ Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
⁴⁴ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia.
⁴⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio 44074, USA.

PMID: 35029450
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.251302

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.