"Clocks in Space! Efforts to Detect Gravitational Waves Through Pulsar Timing"
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) is well into a second decade of precisely timing an array of millisecond pulsars with the intent to detect and characterize gravitational waves (GWs) generated by, among other things, inspiraling supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs). I will discuss various aspects of the astrophysics of nanohertz gravitational waves, from the coupling of SMBHBs to their environments to cosmic superstrings to non-Einsteinian GW polarizations. I will also discuss how the anticipated features of the nanohertz GW landscape and the astrophysics of pulsars and the interstellar medium inform NANOGrav’s observing strategies
