The NANOGrav 11-year Data Set: High-precision timing of 45 Millisecond Pulsars
Creators: name: Arzoumanian, Zaven
name: Brazier, Adam
name: Burke-Spolaor, Sarah
name: Chamberlin, Sydney
name: Chatterjee, Shami
name: Christy, Brian
name: Cordes, James M.
name: Cornish, Neil J.
name: Crawford, Fronefield
name: Cromartie, H. Thankful
name: Crowter, Kathryn
name: DeCesar, Megan E.
name: Demorest, Paul B.
name: Dolch, Timothy
name: Ellis, Justin A.
name: Ferdman, Robert D.
name: Ferrara, Elizabeth C.
name: Fonseca, Emmanuel
name: Garver-Daniels, Nathan
name: Gentile, Peter A.
name: Halmrast, Daniel
name: Huerta, Eliu
name: Jenet, Fredrick A.
name: Jessup, Cody
name: Jones, Glenn
name: Jones, Megan L.
name: Kaplan, David L.
name: Lam, Michael T.
name: Lazio, T. Joseph W.
name: Levin, Lina
name: Lommen, Andrea
name: Lorimer, Duncan R.
name: Luo, Jing
name: Lynch, Ryan S.
name: Madison, Dustin
name: Matthews, Allison M.
name: McLaughlin, Maura A.
name: McWilliams, Sean T.
name: Mingarelli, Chiara
name: Ng, Cherry
name: Nice, David J.
name: Pennucci, Timothy T.
name: Ransom, Scott M.
name: Ray, Paul S.
name: Siemens, Xavier
name: Simon, Joseph
name: Spiewak, Renee
name: Stairs, Ingrid H.
name: Stinebring, Daniel R.
name: Stovall, Kevin
name: Swiggum, Joseph K.
name: Taylor, Stephen R.
name: Vallisneri, Michele
name: van Haasteren, Rutger
name: Vigeland, Sarah J.
name: Zhu, Weiwei
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present high-precision timing data over time spans of up to 11 years for 45 millisecond pulsars observed as part of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) project, aimed at detecting and characterizing low-frequency gravitational waves. The pulsars were observed with the Arecibo Observatory and/or the Green Bank Telescope at frequencies ranging from 327 MHz to 2.3 GHz. Most pulsars were observed with approximately monthly cadence, with six high--timing-precision pulsars observed weekly, and all were observed at widely separated frequencies at each observing epoch in order to fit for time-variable dispersion delays. We describe our methods for data processing, time-of-arrival (TOA) calculation, and the implementation of a new, automated method for removing outlier TOAs. We fit a timing model for each pulsar that includes spin, astrometric, and, if necessary, binary parameters, in addition to time-variable dispersion delays and parameters that quantify pulse-profile evolution with frequency. The new timing solutions provide three new parallax measurements, two new Shapiro delay measurements, and two new measurements of large orbital-period variations. We fit models that characterize sources of noise for each pulsar. We find that 11 pulsars show significant red noise, with generally smaller spectral indices than typically measured for non-recycled pulsars, possibly suggesting a different origin. Future papers will use these data to constrain or detect the signatures of gravitational-wave signals.
description: Published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series