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Probing past mergers of supermassive black holes with pulsar timing arrays: The role of pulsar terms

Hippolyte Quelquejay Leclere*

  • *Contact author: hippolyte.quelquejayleclere@unimib.it
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 043063 – Published 24 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9wq2-gqkh

Abstract

By monitoring the times of arrival of radio pulses from millisecond pulsars, pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) serve as unique gravitational wave (GW) laboratories in the nanohertz band. To date, the primary astrophysical sources of GWs targeted in this frequency range have been inspiraling supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) on circular and eccentric orbits. In this work, we demonstrate that, thanks to the so-called pulsar term in the timing residual waveform of GW signals, PTAs can probe individual SMBHBs that merged before timing observations began. We refer to the latter as zombie binaries. Using SMBHB population models consistent with current PTA constraints, we find that while the probability of detecting such systems in existing PTA datasets remains low, the Square Kilometer Array observatory is expected to achieve sufficient sensitivity to have a few zombie binaries with optimal matched filter signal-to-noise ratios exceeding 3 in its data. Although their confident identification might be challenging, this new class of PTA sources opens a novel window for studying the most massive SMBHBs in our local universe.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 043063– Published 24 August, 2026
  • Received 13 March 2026
  • Accepted 30 July 2026
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