Gravitational wave timing array

Abstract

We describe the design of a gravitational wave timing array, a novel scheme that can be used to search for low-frequency gravitational waves by monitoring continuous gravitational waves at higher frequencies. We show that observations of gravitational waves produced by Galactic binaries using a space-based detector like LISA provide sensitivity in the nanohertz to microhertz band. While the expected sensitivity of this proposal is not competitive with other methods, it fills a gap in frequency space around the microhertz regime, which is above the range probed by current pulsar timing arrays and below the expected direct frequency coverage of LISA. The low-frequency extension of sensitivity does not require any experimental design change to space-based gravitational wave detectors, and can be achieved with the data products that would already be collected by them.