Pulsar Timing Arrays

Abstract

In the last decade, the use of an ensemble of radio pulsars to constrain the characteristic strain caused by a stochastic gravitational wave background has advanced the cause of detection of very low frequency gravitational waves significantly. This electromagnetic means of gravitational wave detection, called Pulsar Timing Array(PTA), is reviewed in this article. The principle of operation of PTA, the current operating PTAs and their status is presented along-with a discussion of the main challenges in the detection of gravitational waves using PTA.