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Pulsar timing in the Galactic Center

R. Della Monica1,2,* and I. De Martino2,3,†

  • 1CENTRA, Departamento de Física, Instituto Superior Técnico—IST, Universidade de Lisboa—UL, Avenida Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2Departamento de Física Fundamental, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced, s/n, E-37008 Salamanca, Spain
  • 3Insituto Universitario de Física Fundamental y Matemáticas (IUFFyM), Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced, s/n, E-37008 Salamanca, Spain

  • *Contact author: rdellamonica@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
  • †Contact author: ivan.demartino@usal.es
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 024048 – Published 20 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9zwc-gk79

Abstract

We propose a novel approach which implements the relativistic calculations of the photon travel time into a robust timing model for pulsars orbiting supermassive black holes. We demonstrate that timing models relying on the lowest-order post-Newtonian approximation can produce significant discrepancies in strong-field configurations, affecting the predicted relativistic times of arrival at an Earth-based observatory. We also show how a misestimation of the pulsar parameters can lead to the appearance of phase-dependent residual, which hints at a tremendous constraining power of the binary and intrinsic parameters for timing observations of potential pulsars at the Galactic Center.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 024048– Published 20 July, 2026
  • Received 30 July 2025
  • Accepted 26 May 2026
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