{
  "abstract": "Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) constrain population properties of supermassive binary black holes (SMBHBs) through the observation of the gravitational wave background (GWB). Unlike other approaches that interpolate population-synthesis libraries or only consider the mean of the strain spectrum, here we capture its full strain probability density directly from semi-analytic population models. We apply our new method to the semi-analytic SMBHB population model, independently reproducing the parameter estimation for this model performed by the NANOGrav Collaboration with their 15-yr data. We also show the extent to which discrete SMBHB contributions to the GWB resolve degeneracies in the population parameter space. Finally, using the source-count intensity as the intermediate product in our calculation, we map PTA observations, as a proof of principle, to the SMBHB model based on the galaxy merger prescriptions from numerical hydrodynamical simulations \"Illustris\". We find the effect of delay times $τ$ between kiloparsec and subparsec SMBHB separations following galaxy mergers, finding $h_{\\rm c}$ spanning $(1$-$6)\\times10^{-16}$ and $N_{\\rm c}$ spanning $(0.3$-$7.1)\\times10^{-3}$ for $τ$ up to 8 Gyr.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.07703",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Kanyuni Iemoto"
    },
    {
      "name": "Boris Goncharov"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gabriela Sato-Polito"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xiaoming Bi"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5p940vdsdv5zc.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.07703",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "5p940vdsdv5zc",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07703",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.HE"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "gr-qc"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7212029787",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.07703",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-07",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5p940vdsdv5zc.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:48Z",
      "native_id": "2609.07703",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07703"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.HE",
      "subfield": "high-energy-astrophysics"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:gr-qc",
      "subfield": "gravitation"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Bridging the Population Synthesis of Supermassive Binary Black Holes and the Gravitational Wave Background",
  "title_text": "Bridging the Population Synthesis of Supermassive Binary Black Holes and the Gravitational Wave Background",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5p940vdsdv5zc",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}