Search

High-precision pulsar timing observations are limited in their accuracy by the jitter noise that appears in the arrival time of pulses. Therefore, it is important to systematically characterise the amplitude of the jitter noise and its variation with frequency. In this paper, we provide jitter measurements from low-frequency wideband observations of PSR J0437$-$4715 using data obtained as part of the Indian Pulsar Timing Array experiment. We were able to detect jitter in both the 300 - 500 MHz and 1260 - 1460 MHz observations of the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT). The former is the first jitter measurement for this pulsar below 700 MHz, and the latter is in good agreement with results from previous studies. In addition, at 300 - 500 MHz, we investigated the frequency dependence of the jitter by calculating the jitter for each sub-banded arrival time of pulses. We found that the jitter amplitude increases with frequency. This trend is opposite as compared to previous studies, indicating that there is a turnover at intermediate frequencies. It will be possible to investigate this in more detail with uGMRT observations at 550 - 750 MHz and future high sensitive wideband observations from next generation telescopes, such as the Square Kilometre Array. We also explored the effect of jitter on the high precision dispersion measure (DM) measurements derived from short duration observations. We find that even though the DM precision will be better at lower frequencies due to the smaller amplitude of jitter noise, it will limit the DM precision for high signal-to-noise observations, which are of short durations. This limitation can be overcome by integrating for a long enough duration optimised for a given pulsar., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, accepted for Publication of the Astronomical Society of Australia

The Australian, Chinese, European, Indian, and North American pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations recently reported, at varying levels, evidence for the presence of a nanohertz gravitational wave background (GWB). Given that each PTA made different choices in modeling their data, we perform a comparison of the GWB and individual pulsar noise parameters across the results reported from the PTAs that constitute the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA). We show that despite making different modeling choices, there is no significant difference in the GWB parameters that are measured by the different PTAs, agreeing within $1\sigma$. The pulsar noise parameters are also consistent between different PTAs for the majority of the pulsars included in these analyses. We bridge the differences in modeling choices by adopting a standardized noise model for all pulsars and PTAs, finding that under this model there is a reduction in the tension in the pulsar noise parameters. As part of this reanalysis, we "extended" each PTA's data set by adding extra pulsars that were not timed by that PTA. Under these extensions, we find better constraints on the GWB amplitude and a higher signal-to-noise ratio for the Hellings and Downs correlations. These extensions serve as a prelude to the benefits offered by a full combination of data across all pulsars in the IPTA, i.e., the IPTA's Data Release 3, which will involve not just adding in additional pulsars, but also including data from all three PTAs where any given pulsar is timed by more than as single PTA., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ApJ

We present the results of a search for continuous gravitational wave signals (CGWs) in the second data release (DR2) of the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) collaboration. The most significant candidate event from this search has a gravitational wave frequency of 4-5 nHz. Such a signal could be generated by a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) in the local Universe. We present the results of a follow-up analysis of this candidate using both Bayesian and frequentist methods. The Bayesian analysis gives a Bayes factor of 4 in favor of the presence of the CGW over a common uncorrelated noise process, while the frequentist analysis estimates the p-value of the candidate to be 1%, also assuming the presence of common uncorrelated red noise. However, comparing a model that includes both a CGW and a gravitational wave background (GWB) to a GWB only, the Bayes factor in favour of the CGW model is only 0.7. Therefore, we cannot conclusively determine the origin of the observed feature, but we cannot rule it out as a CGW source. We present results of simulations that demonstrate that data containing a weak gravitational wave background can be misinterpreted as data including a CGW and vice versa, providing two plausible explanations of the EPTA DR2 data. Further investigations combining data from all PTA collaborations will be needed to reveal the true origin of this feature., Comment: 13 figures, 15 pages, accepted

The nanohertz gravitational wave background (GWB) is expected to be an aggregate signal of an ensemble of gravitational waves emitted predominantly by a large population of coalescing supermassive black hole binaries in the centres of merging galaxies. Pulsar timing arrays, ensembles of extremely stable pulsars, are the most precise experiments capable of detecting this background. However, the subtle imprints that the GWB induces on pulsar timing data are obscured by many sources of noise. These must be carefully characterized to increase the sensitivity to the GWB. In this paper, we present a novel technique to estimate the optimal number of frequency coefficients for modelling achromatic and chromatic noise and perform model selection. We also incorporate a new model to fit for scattering variations in the pulsar timing package temponest and created realistic simulations of the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) datasets that allowed us to test the efficacy of our noise modelling algorithms. We present an in-depth analysis of the noise properties of 25 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) that form the second data release (DR2) of the EPTA and investigate the effect of incorporating low-frequency data from the Indian PTA collaboration. We use enterprise and temponest packages to compare noise models with those reported with the EPTA DR1. We find that, while in some pulsars we can successfully disentangle chromatic from achromatic noise owing to the wider frequency coverage in DR2, in others the noise models evolve in a more complicated way. We also find evidence of long-term scattering variations in PSR J1600$-$3053. Through our simulations, we identify intrinsic biases in our current noise analysis techniques and discuss their effect on GWB searches. The results presented here directly help improve sensitivity to the GWB and are already being used as part of global PTA efforts., Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, 9 tables

We present the results of the search for an isotropic stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB) at nanohertz frequencies using the second data release of the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) for 25 millisecond pulsars and a combination with the first data release of the Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA). We analysed (i) the full 24.7-year EPTA data set, (ii) its 10.3-year subset based on modern observing systems, (iii) the combination of the full data set with the first data release of the InPTA for ten commonly timed millisecond pulsars, and (iv) the combination of the 10.3-year subset with the InPTA data. These combinations allowed us to probe the contributions of instrumental noise and interstellar propagation effects. With the full data set, we find marginal evidence for a GWB, with a Bayes factor of four and a false alarm probability of $4\%$. With the 10.3-year subset, we report evidence for a GWB, with a Bayes factor of $60$ and a false alarm probability of about $0.1\%$ ($\gtrsim 3\sigma$ significance). The addition of the InPTA data yields results that are broadly consistent with the EPTA-only data sets, with the benefit of better noise modelling. Analyses were performed with different data processing pipelines to test the consistency of the results from independent software packages. The inferred spectrum from the latest EPTA data from new generation observing systems is rather uncertain and in mild tension with the common signal measured in the full data set. However, if the spectral index is fixed at 13/3, the two data sets give a similar amplitude of ($2.5\pm0.7)\times10^{-15}$ at a reference frequency of $1\,{\rm yr}^{-1}$. By continuing our detection efforts as part of the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA), we expect to be able to improve the measurement of spatial correlations and better characterise this signal in the coming years., Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures, 4 appendix figures, accepted for publication in A&A

The wideband timing technique enables the high-precision simultaneous estimation of pulsar Times of Arrival (ToAs) and Dispersion Measures (DMs) while effectively modeling frequency-dependent profile evolution. We present two novel independent methods that extend the standard wideband technique to handle simultaneous multi-band pulsar data incorporating profile evolution over a larger frequency span to estimate DMs and ToAs with enhanced precision. We implement the wideband likelihood using the libstempo python interface to perform wideband timing in the tempo2 framework. We present the application of these techniques to the dataset of fourteen millisecond pulsars observed simultaneously in Band 3 (300 - 500 MHz) and Band 5 (1260 - 1460 MHz) of the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) with a large band gap of 760 MHz as a part of the Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA) campaign. We achieve increased ToA and DM precision and sub-microsecond root mean square post-fit timing residuals by combining simultaneous multi-band pulsar observations done in non-contiguous bands for the first time using our novel techniques., Comment: Published in MNRAS

The Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA) collaboration has recently made its first official data release (DR1) for a sample of 14 pulsars using 3.5 years of uGMRT observations. We present the results of single-pulsar noise analysis for each of these 14 pulsars using the InPTA DR1. For this purpose, we consider white noise, achromatic red noise, dispersion measure (DM) variations, and scattering variations in our analysis. We apply Bayesian model selection to obtain the preferred noise models among these for each pulsar. For PSR J1600$-$3053, we find no evidence of DM and scattering variations, while for PSR J1909$-$3744, we find no significant scattering variations. Properties vary dramatically among pulsars. For example, we find a strong chromatic noise with chromatic index $\sim$ 2.9 for PSR J1939+2134, indicating the possibility of a scattering index that doesn't agree with that expected for a Kolmogorov scattering medium consistent with similar results for millisecond pulsars in past studies. Despite the relatively short time baseline, the noise models broadly agree with the other PTAs and provide, at the same time, well-constrained DM and scattering variations., Comment: Accepted for publication in PRD, 30 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables

Decades long monitoring of millisecond pulsars, which exhibit highly stable rotational periods, in pulsar timing array experiments is on the threshold of discovering nanohertz stochastic gravitational wave background. This paper describes the Indian Pulsar timing array (InPTA) experiment, which employs the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) for timing an ensemble of millisecond pulsars for this purpose. We highlight InPTA's observation strategies and analysis methods, which are relevant for a future PTA experiment with the more sensitive Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope. We show that the unique multi-sub-array multi-band wide-bandwidth frequency coverage of the InPTA provides Dispersion Measure estimates with unprecedented precision for PTA pulsars, e.g., ~ 2 x 10{-5} pc-cm{-3} for PSR J1909-3744. Configuring the SKA-low and SKA-mid as two and four sub-arrays respectively, it is shown that comparable precision is achievable, using observation strategies similar to those pursued by the InPTA, for a larger sample of 62 pulsars requiring about 26 and 7 hours per epoch for the SKA-mid and the SKA-low telescopes respectively. We also review the ongoing efforts to develop PTA-relevant general relativistic constructs that will be required to search for nanohertz gravitational waves from isolated super-massive black hole binary systems like blazar OJ 287. These efforts should be relevant to pursue persistent multi-messenger gravitational wave astronomy during the forthcoming era of the SKA telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope, and the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope., Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics for Special Issue on Indian Participation in the SKA (Editors : Abhirup Datta, Nirupam Roy, Preeti Kharb and Tirthankar Roy Choudhury)

We present the pulse arrival times and high-precision dispersion measure estimates for 14 millisecond pulsars observed simultaneously in the 300-500 MHz and 1260-1460 MHz frequency bands using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT). The data spans over a baseline of 3.5 years (2018-2021), and is the first official data release made available by the Indian Pulsar Timing Array collaboration. This data release presents a unique opportunity for investigating the interstellar medium effects at low radio frequencies and their impact on the timing precision of pulsar timing array experiments. In addition to the dispersion measure time series and pulse arrival times obtained using both narrowband and wideband timing techniques, we also present the dispersion measure structure function analysis for selected pulsars. Our ongoing investigations regarding the frequency dependence of dispersion measures have been discussed. Based on the preliminary analysis for five millisecond pulsars, we do not find any conclusive evidence of chromaticity in dispersion measures. Data from regular simultaneous two-frequency observations are presented for the first time in this work. This distinctive feature leads us to the highest precision dispersion measure estimates obtained so far for a subset of our sample. Simultaneous multi-band uGMRT observations in Band 3 and Band 5 are crucial for high-precision dispersion measure estimation and for the prospect of expanding the overall frequency coverage upon the combination of data from the various Pulsar Timing Array consortia in the near future. Parts of the data presented in this work are expected to be incorporated into the upcoming third data release of the International Pulsar Timing Array., Comment: 23 pages, 21 figures, 3 tables. Published in PASA

Low angular momentum, general relativistic, axially symmetric accretion of hydrodynamic fluid onto Schwarzschild black holes may undergo more than one critical transition. To obtain the stationary integral solutions corresponding to such multi-critical accretion flow, one needs to employ numerical solutions of the corresponding fluid dynamics equations. In the present work, we develop a {\it{completely analytical}} solution scheme which may be used to find several trans-critical flow behaviours of aforementioned accretion, without explicitly solving the flow equations numerically. We study all possible geometric configurations of the flow profile, governed by all possible thermodynamic equations of state. We use Sturm's chain algorithm to find out how many physically acceptable critical points the accretion flow can have, and discuss the transition from the mono to the multi-critical flow profile, and related bifurcation phenomena. We thus illustrate, completely analytically, the application of certain aspects of the dynamical systems theory in the field of large scale astrophysical flow under the influence of strong gravity. Our work may possibly be generalized to calculate the maximal number of equilibrium points certain autonomous dynamical systems can have in general., Comment: Significantly updated and elaborated. The introduction part has largely been re-written, and a detailed concluding remarks part has been added. Figure has been modified

PSR J1713+0747 is one of the most precisely timed pulsars in the international pulsar timing array experiment. This pulsar showed an abrupt profile shape change between April 16, 2021 (MJD 59320) and April 17, 2021 (MJD 59321). In this paper, we report the results from multi-frequency observations of this pulsar carried out with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) before and after the event. We demonstrate the profile change seen in Band 5 (1260 MHz - 1460 MHz) and Band 3 (300 MHz - 500 MHz). The timing analysis of this pulsar shows a disturbance accompanying this profile change followed by a recovery with a timescale of $\sim 159$ days. Our data suggest that a model with chromatic index as a free parameter is preferred over models with combinations of achromaticity with DM bump or scattering bump. We determine the frequency dependence to be $\sim\nu^{+1.34}$., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS-Letters

For general relativistic, inviscid, axisymmetric flow around Kerr black hole one may choose different flow thickness. The stationary flow equations can be solved using methods of dynamical system to get transonic accretion flows , i.e, flow infalling in the blackhole that turns supersonic from subsonic with decreasing radial distance, or vice versa. This transonic flows are obtained by choosing the particular flow passing through critical points of phase portrait. For certain flow thickness like the one maintaining conical shape, the sonic point coincide with the critical point. But there are certain flows maintaining hydrostatic equilibrium, such as the one described by Novikov-Thorne, where the sonic point is not same as the critical point. We perturb the flow for both kind of flow and study the behaviour of linear perturbation which behaves like massless scalar field in some curved spacetime, known as, analogue space time. We draw the compactified causal structure, i.e, Penrose Carter diagram for both kind of analogue metric and prove that for both cases critical points are the acoustic horizons, whereas in the case where sonic points do not coincide with critical points, the sonic points are not the acoustic horizon, as one may expect from the definition of sound speed., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1811.04975

For axially symmetric accretion maintained in hydrostatic equilibrium along the vertical direction, we investigate how the characteristic features of the embedded acoustic geometry depends on the background Kerr metric, and how such dependence is governed by three different expressions of the thickness of the matter flow. We first obtain the location of the sonic points and stationary shock between the sonic points. We then linearly perturb the flow to obtain the corresponding metric elements of the acoustic space-time. We thus construct the causal structure to establish that the sonic points and the shocks are actually the analogue black hole type and white hole type horizons, respectively. We finally compute the value of the acoustic surface gravity as a function of the spin angular momentum of the rotating black hole for three different flow thicknesses considered in the present work. We find that for some flow models, the intrinsic acoustic geometry, although in principle may be extended up to the outer gravitational horizon of the astrophysical black hole, cannot be constructed beyond a certain truncation radius as imposed by the expressions of the thickness function of the corresponding flow., Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the authors, because the whole work has extensively been updated later on, hence the present version may be misleading. In addition, some errors are present in one of the calculations. We thus, would like to rewrite the whole manuscript from a different perspective and would like to submit that manuscript as a fresh one

General relativistic, axisymmetric flow of low angular momentum accretion around a Kerr black hole can have certain geometric configuration where the flow is maintained in hydrostatic equilibrium along the vertical direction (direction orthogonal to the equatorial plane of the flow). The flow thickness for such accretion models becomes a function of the local radial distance measured from the black hole horizon. There are three types of functions defined in the literature which resemble the thickness of the flow for such a configuration. We formulate the equations governing the steady state astrophysical accretion characterized by both the polytropic as well as the isothermal equation of state in classical thermodynamics. We solve the equations within the framework of such geometric configuration for three different thickness functions, to obtain the multi-transonic, shocked, stationary integral accretion solutions. Such solutions enable us to study how flow thickness influences the dependence of the properties of post-shock flows on black hole spin angular momentum, i.e., the Kerr parameter. For temperature-preserving standings shocks, we find that the post-shock part of the disc can become luminous and considerable amount of gravitational energy carried by the accreting fluid can get liberated at the shock. We find which kind of thickness function produces the maximum liberated energy, making the disc most luminous., Comment: 40 pages, 12 figures

Linear perturbation of general relativistic accretion of low angular momentum hydrodynamic fluid onto a Kerr black hole leads to the formation of curved acoustic geometry embedded within the background flow. Characteristic features of such sonic geometry depend on the black hole spin. Such dependence can be probed by studying the correlation of the acoustic surface gravity $\kappa$ with the Kerr parameter $a$. The $\kappa - a$ relationship further gets influenced by the geometric configuration of the accretion flow structure. In this work, such influence has been studied for multitransonic shocked accretion where linear perturbation of general relativistic flow profile leads to the formation of two analogue black hole type horizons formed at the sonic points and one analogue white hole type horizon which is formed at the shock location producing divergent acoustic surface gravity. Dependence of the $\kappa - a$ relationship on the geometric configuration has also been studied for monotransonic accretion, over the entire span of the Kerr parameter including retrograde flow. For accreting astrophysical black holes, the present work thus investigates how the salient features of the embedded relativistic sonic geometry may be determined not only by the background space-time, but also by the flow configuration of the embedding matter., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures

This work illustrates how the formation of energy-preserving shocks for polytropic accretion and temperature-preserving shocks for isothermal accretion are influenced by various geometrical configurations of general relativistic, axisymmetric, low-angular-momentum flow in the Kerr metric. Relevant pre- and post-shock states of the accreting fluid, both dynamical and thermodynamic, have been studied comprehensively. Self-gravitational back-reaction on the metric has not been considered in the present context. An elegant eigenvalue-based analytical method has been introduced to provide qualitative descriptions of the phase-orbits corresponding to stationary transonic accretion solutions, without resorting to involved numerical schemes. Effort has been made to understand how the weakly-rotating flow behaves in close proximity of the event horizon and how such `quasi-terminal' quantities are influenced by the black hole spin for different matter geometries. Our main purpose is thus to mathematically demonstrate that for non-self-gravitating accretion, separate matter geometries, in addition to the corresponding space-time geometry, control various shock-induced phenomena observed within black hole accretion discs. This work is expected to reveal how such phenomena observed near the horizon depend on physical environment of the source harbouring a supermassive black hole at its centre. It is also expected to unfold correspondences between the dependence of accretion-related parameters on flow geometries and on black hole spin. Temperature-preserving shocks in isothermal accretion may appear bright as substantial amount of rest-mass energy of the infalling matter gets dissipated at the shock surface, and the prompt removal of such energy to maintain isothermality may power the X-ray/IR flares emitted from our Galactic centre., Comment: 50 pages, 24 figures. Title has been modified. Section pertaining to powering of flares through energy dissipation at shock for isothermal flows, has been included. New figures have been added. Some previous figures and sections have been modified

In black hole evaporation process, the mass of the hole anti-correlates with the Hawking temperature. This indicates that the smaller holes have higher surface gravity. For analogue Hawking effects, however, the acoustic surface gravity is determined by the local values of the dynamical velocity of the stationary background fluid flow and the speed of propagation of the characteristic perturbation embedded in the background fluid, as well as by their space derivatives evaluated along the direction normal to the acoustic horizon, respectively. The mass of the analogue system - whether classical or quantum - does not directly contribute to extremise the value of the associated acoustic surface gravity. For general relativistic axially symmetric background fluid flow in the Schwarzschild metric, we show that the initial boundary conditions describing such accretion influence the maximization scheme of the acoustic surface gravity and associated analogue temperature. Aforementioned background flow onto black holes can assume three distinct geometric configurations. Identical set of initial boundary conditions can lead to entirely different phase-space behavior of the stationary flow solutions, as well as the salient features of the associated relativistic acoustic geometry. This implies that it is imperative to investigate how the measure of the acoustic surface gravity corresponding to the accreting black holes gets influenced by the geometric configuration of the inflow described by various thermodynamic equations of state. Such investigation is useful to study the effect of Einstenian gravity on the non-conventional classical features as observed in Hawking like effect in a dispersive medium in the limit of a strong dispersion relation., Comment: 48 pages. 13 figures. Substantial revision. Entire manuscript almost fully re-written. Latex typos in equations for the polynomials in the critical points are corrected. Appendices added