ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF A STOCHASTIC BACKGROUND OF GRAVITATIONAL-RADIATION TO THE TIMING NOISE OF PULSARS

The influence of a stochastic and isotropic background of gravitational radiation on the timing measurements of pulsars is investigated. If the coherence time of the background is short compared to the time span of pulsar observations, pulsar timing noise data can be used to set an upper limit of ~ 10-10 on the background energy density (in units of the closure density) contained in the long wavelength tail λg > ~ 10 kpc. A background of this nature is not expected to have any appreciable effects on the dynamics of a cluster of galaxies or on the (~ 3 K) electromagnetic background radiation. Using pulsar timing data, significant upper limits may be set on the energy density of a stochastic background with a simple spectrum provided it is dominated by waves of period longer than ~ 1 yr but shorter than the period of pulsar observations. © 1982 Royal Astronomical Society. Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System.