The Third ATNF Gravitational Wave Workshop
Date: 11th Dec 2009
Place: ATNF Lecture Theatre, Marsfield, Sydney
Organisers: George Hobbs & Dick Manchester
Aim: To highlight results from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project, to discuss astrophysical sources of gravitational waves and to discuss future issues
Registration: Please contact George Hobbs if you wish to participate as a speaker and present a talk or as part of the audience.
Background information
Data have been collected for the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project
over the past 4 years. The main goal of the PPTA project is to make the
first direct detection of gravitational waves. Already, we have used our
data to limit the existence of a stochastic background of low-frequency
gravitational waves. Other results from the project have included constraining
Solar system planetary masses, studying the Solar corona and probing the
interstellar medium. In the near future we expect to limit the existence
of single coalescing massive black-hole binary systems to high red-shift,
place limits on various theories of gravity, study pulsar spin-down and
search for irregularities in terrestrial time standards.
Programme
Session 1: Data sets and analysis, chair Dick Manchester
| Time | Speaker | Topic |
|---|
| 09:00-09:20 | George Hobbs | Status report on the PPTA/IPTA projects |
|---|
| 09:20-09:40 | Willem van Straten | Polarisation calibration and timing |
|---|
| 09:40-10:00 | Matthew Bailes | (via teleconference) New instrumentation for pulsar timing |
|---|
| 10:00-10:20 | Stefan Oslowski | An analysis of single pulses from PSR J0437-4715 |
|---|
| 10:20-10:40 | Coffee |
|---|
Session 2: GW sources, chair Ray Norris
| Time | Speaker | Topic |
|---|
| 10:40-11:00 | Sarah Burke-Spolaor | Observational limits on binary black holes in galaxies |
|---|
| 11:00-11:15 | Fredrick Jenet | Constraining the coalescence rate of supermassive black-hole binaries using pulsar timing (10 minute talk) |
|---|
| 11:15-11:35 | Daniel Yardley | Results from trying to detect a GW background in pulsar timing data |
|---|
| 11:35-11:55 | Richard Schilizzi | The SKA project (may lead into Ron's talk/discussion below) |
|---|
| 11:55-12:20 | Ron Ekers | Finding supermassive binary black holes (5 minute talk + discussion led by Ron) |
|---|
| 12:20-13:20 | Lunch |
|---|
Session 3: Current projects, chair Willem van Straten
Session 4: Instrumentation at Parkes, chair George Hobbs
