Speaker
Kai Schmitz
Description
The field of pulsar timing array (PTA) searches for gravitational waves (GWs) is currently in an exciting phase, with the 5σ detection of a nanohertz GW background (GWB) possibly just around the corner. In this talk, I will review the current status of these searches and discuss possible beyond-the-Standard Model (BSM) sources of a GWB signal in the PTA frequency band. Finally, I will introduce new physics-agnostic reference models for the spectral reconstruction of the GWB signal in PTA data and explain how they can be used for Bayesian parameter inference and model selection.
