Zu-Cheng Chen

Abstract We present the third data release from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project. The release contains observations of 32 pulsars obtained using the 64-m Parkes ‘Murriyang’ radio telescope. The data span is up to 18 yr with a typical cadence of 3 weeks. This data release is formed by combining an updated version of our second data release with $\sim$ 3 yr of more recent data primarily obtained using an ultra-wide-bandwidth receiver system that operates between 704 and 4032 MHz. We provide calibrated pulse profiles, flux density dynamic spectra, pulse times of arrival, and initial pulsar timing models. We describe methods for processing such wide-bandwidth observations and compare this data release with our previous release.

The detection of binary black hole coalescences by LIGO and Virgo has aroused the interest in primordial black holes (PBHs), because they could be both the progenitors of these black holes and a compelling candidate of dark matter (DM). PBHs are formed soon after the enhanced scalar perturbations reenter horizon during the radiation dominated era, which would inevitably induce gravitational waves as well. Searching for such scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) provides an elegant way to probe PBHs. We perform the first direct search for the signals of SIGWs accompanying the formation of PBHs in the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves (NANOGrav) 11-year dataset. No statistically significant detection has been made, and hence we place a stringent upper limit on the abundance of PBHs at 95% confidence level. In particular, less than one part in a million of the total DM mass could come from PBHs in the mass range of [2×10^{-3},7×10^{-1}] M_{⊙}.

Abstract Up to now several gravitational-wave events from the coalescences of black hole binaries have been reported by LIGO/VIRGO, and imply that black holes should have an extended mass function. We work out the merger rate distribution of primordial black hole (PBH) binaries with a general mass function by taking into account the torques by all PBHs and linear density perturbations. In the future, many more coalescences of black hole binaries are expected to be detected, and the one-dimensional and two-dimensional merger rate distributions will be crucial for reconstructing the mass function of PBHs.

In this paper we calculate the scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) accompanying the formation of primordial black holes during the radiation dominated era in three different gauges, i.e., the synchronous gauge, Newton gauge, and uniform curvature gauge, and we find that the energy density spectra of SIGWs, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}}_{\mathrm{GW}}(k)$, are identical in these three different gauges.

We investigate how the next generation gravitational-wave (GW) detectors, such as Einstein Telescope (ET) and Cosmic Explorer (CE), can be used to distinguish primordial black holes (PBHs) from astrophysical black holes (ABHs). Since a direct detection of sub-solar mass black holes can be taken as the smoking gun for PBHs, we figure out the detectable limits of the abundance of sub-solar mass PBHs in cold dark matter by the targeted search for sub-solar mass PBH binaries and binaries containing a sub-solar mass PBH and a super-solar mass PBH, respectively. On the other hand, according to the different redshift evolutions of merger rate for PBH binaries and ABH binaries, we forecast the detectable event rate distributions for the PBH binaries and ABH binaries by ET and CE respectively, which can serve as a method to distinguish super-solar mass PBHs from ABHs.