Observing gravitational wave bursts in pulsar timing measurements

Understand

We propose a novel method for observing the gravitational wave signature of super-massive black hole (SMBH) mergers.

• This method is based on detection of a specific type of gravitational waves, namely gravitational wave burst with memory (BWM), using pulsar timing.
• We study the unique signature produced by BWM in anomalous pulsar timing residuals.
• We show that the present day pulsar timing precision allows one to detect BWM due to SMBH mergers from distances up to 1 Gpc (for case of equal mass 10^8 Msun SMBH).