A Pulsar Time Scale Based on Parkes Observations in 1995--2010

Abstract

Timing of highly stable millisecond pulsars provides the possibility of independently verifying terrestrial time scales on intervals longer than a year. An ensemble pulsar time scale is constructed based on pulsar timing data obtained on the 64-m Parkes telescope (Australia) in 1995--2010. Optimal Wiener filters were applied to enhance the accuracy of the ensemble time scale. The run of the time--scale difference PT$_{ens}$ $-$ TT(BIPM2011) does not exceed $0.8 {\pm} 0.4$ $\mu s$ over the entire studied time interval. The fractional instability of the difference $_{ens}$ $-$ TT(BIPM2011) over 15 years is ${\sigma_z} = (0.6\pm 1.6){\cdot}10^{-15}$, which corresponds to an upper limit for the energy density of the gravitational--wave background ${\Omega_g}h^2 {\sim} 10^{-10}$ and variations in the gravitational potential ${\sim} 10^{-15}$ Hz at the frequency $2{\cdot}10^{-9}$.