The European Pulsar Timing Array: current efforts and a LEAP toward the future

R D Ferdman (1, 2, 3) , R van Haasteren (4) , C G Bassa (2) , M Burgay (5) , Ismaël Cognard (1, 3) , A Corongiu (5) , N D Amico (5, 6) , G Desvignes (1, 3) , J W T Hessels (7, 8) , G H Janssen (2) , A Jessner (9) , C Jordan (2) , R Karuppusamy (9) , E F Keane (2) , M Kramer (2, 9) , K Lazaridis (9) , Y Levin (10) , a G Lyne (2) , M Pilia (5, 11) , A Possenti (5) , M Purver (2) , B Stappers (2) , S Sanidas (2) , R Smits (7) , Gilles Theureau (1, 3, 12)

1 USN - Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay
2 Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
3 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
4 Leiden Observatory [Leiden]
5 OAC - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
6 Dipartimento di Fisica
7 ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
8 AI PANNEKOEK - Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek
9 MPIFR - Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
10 Loretz Institute
11 Dipartimento di Fisica
12 GEPI - Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation

The European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) is a multi-institutional, multi-telescope collaboration, with the goal of using high-precision pulsar timing to directly detect gravitational waves. In this article we discuss the EPTA member telescopes, current achieved timing precision, and near-future goals. We also report a preliminary upper limit to the amplitude of a gravitational wave background. We also discuss the Large European Array for Pulsars, in which the five major European telescopes involved in pulsar timing will be combined to provide a coherent array that will give similar sensitivity to the Arecibo radio telescope, and larger sky coverage.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

R D Ferdman, R van Haasteren, C G Bassa, M Burgay, Ismaël Cognard, et al.. The European Pulsar Timing Array: current efforts and a LEAP toward the future. 8th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, Jun 2009, New York, United States. pp.84014, ⟨10.1088/0264-9381/27/8/084014⟩. ⟨hal-00587614⟩