The SKAO Pulsar Timing Array
Abstract
Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are ensembles of millisecond pulsars observed for years to decades. The primary goal of PTAs is to study gravitational-wave astronomy at nanohertz frequencies, with secondary goals of undertaking other fundamental tests of physics and astronomy. Recently, compelling evidence has emerged in established PTA experiments for the presence of a gravitational-wave background. To accelerate a confident detection of such a signal and then study gravitational-wave emitting sources, it is necessary to observe a larger number of millisecond pulsars to greater timing precision. The SKAO telescopes, which will be a factor of three to four greater in sensitivity compared to any other southern hemisphere facility, are poised to make such an impact. In this chapter, we motivate an SKAO pulsar timing array (SKAO PTA) experiment. We discuss the classes of gravitational waves present in PTA observations and how an SKAO PTA can detect and study them. We then describe the sources that can produce these signals. We discuss the astrophysical noise sources that must be mitigated to undertake the most sensitive searches. We then describe a realistic PTA experiment implemented with the SKA and place it in context alongside other PTA experiments likely ongoing in the 2030s. We describe the techniques necessary to search for gravitational waves in the SKAO PTA and motivate how very long baseline interferometry can improve the sensitivity of an SKAO PTA. The SKAO PTA will provide a view of the Universe complementary to those of the other large facilities of the 2030s.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{shannon2026skao,
title = {{The SKAO Pulsar Timing Array}},
author = {Ryan M Shannon and N.D. Ramesh Bhat and Aurélien Chalumeau and Siyuan Chen and H. Thankful Cromartie and A Gopakumar and Kathrin Grunthal and Jeffrey Hazboun and Francesco Iraci and Bhal Chandra Joshi and Ryo Kato and Michael J Keith and Kejia Lee and Kuo Liu and Hannah Middleton and Matthew T Miles and Chiara Mingarelli and Aditya Parthasarathy and Daniel Reardon and Golam Shaifullah and Keitaro Takahashi and Caterina Tiburzi and Riccardo J Truant and Xiao Xue and Andrew Zic},
howpublished = {HAL},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
eprint = {2607.03059},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05734274v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The SKAO Pulsar Timing Array
AU - Ryan M Shannon
AU - N.D. Ramesh Bhat
AU - Aurélien Chalumeau
AU - Siyuan Chen
AU - H. Thankful Cromartie
AU - A Gopakumar
AU - Kathrin Grunthal
AU - Jeffrey Hazboun
AU - Francesco Iraci
AU - Bhal Chandra Joshi
AU - Ryo Kato
AU - Michael J Keith
AU - Kejia Lee
AU - Kuo Liu
AU - Hannah Middleton
AU - Matthew T Miles
AU - Chiara Mingarelli
AU - Aditya Parthasarathy
AU - Daniel Reardon
AU - Golam Shaifullah
AU - Keitaro Takahashi
AU - Caterina Tiburzi
AU - Riccardo J Truant
AU - Xiao Xue
AU - Andrew Zic
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/03
PB - HAL
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05734274v1
AB - Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are ensembles of millisecond pulsars observed for years to decades. The primary goal of PTAs is to study gravitational-wave astronomy at nanohertz frequencies, with secondary goals of undertaking other fundamental tests of physics and astronomy. Recently, compelling evidence has emerged in established PTA experiments for the presence of a gravitational-wave background. To accelerate a confident detection of such a signal and then study gravitational-wave emitting sources, it is necessary to observe a larger number of millisecond pulsars to greater timing precision. The SKAO telescopes, which will be a factor of three to four greater in sensitivity compared to any other southern hemisphere facility, are poised to make such an impact. In this chapter, we motivate an SKAO pulsar timing array (SKAO PTA) experiment. We discuss the classes of gravitational waves present in PTA observations and how an SKAO PTA can detect and study them. We then describe the sources that can produce these signals. We discuss the astrophysical noise sources that must be mitigated to undertake the most sensitive searches. We then describe a realistic PTA experiment implemented with the SKA and place it in context alongside other PTA experiments likely ongoing in the 2030s. We describe the techniques necessary to search for gravitational waves in the SKAO PTA and motivate how very long baseline interferometry can improve the sensitivity of an SKAO PTA. The SKAO PTA will provide a view of the Universe complementary to those of the other large facilities of the 2030s.
ER -