Abstract
Long-term studies of pulse arrival times for the pulsar PSR1937 + 21 yield estimates of the pulsar's period, spin-down rate and celestial coordinates with unprecedented accuracies. Over periods exceeding six months, this pulsar is at least comparable in stability to the best man-made atomic clocks. Our results place a limit on the energy density of low-frequency gravitational waves in the Universe.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access to this article via Institution of Civil Engineers Library is not available.
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Backer, D. C., Kulkarni, S. R., Heiles, C., Davis, M. M. & Goss, W. M. Nature 300, 615–618 (1982).
Backer, D. C., Kulkarni, S. R. & Taylor, J. H. Nature 301, 314–315 (1983).
Romani, R. W. & Taylor, J. H. Astrophys. J. Lett. 265, L35–L37 (1983).
Hellings, R. W. & Downs, G. S. Astrophys. J. Lett. 265, L39–L42 (1983).
Backer, D. C., Fomalont, E. B., Taylor, J. H. & Weisberg, J. M. Astr. J. (submitted).
Taylor, J. H. & Weisberg, J. M. Astrophys. J. 253, 908–920 (1982).
Boriakoff, V. thesis, Cornell Univ. (1973).
Gwinn, C. R. thesis, Princeton Univ. (1984).
Manchester, R. N. & Taylor, J. H. Pulsars (Freeman, San Francisco, 1977).
Helfand, D. J., Taylor, J. H., Backus, P. R. & Cordes, J. M. Astrophys. J. 237, 206–215 (1980).
Backus, P. R., Taylor, J. H. & Damashek, M. Astrophys. J. Lett. 255, L63–L67 (1982).
Moyer, T. D. Celestial. Mech. 23, 33–56; 57–68 (1981).
Armstrong, J. W. Nature 307, 527–528 (1984).
Proszynski, M. Green Bank Workshop on Millisecond Pulsars (National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, 1984).
Bartel, N. et al. Astr. J. 90, 318–325 (1985).
Heiles, C., Kulkarni, S. R., Stevens, M. A., Backer, D. C. & Davis, M. M. Astrophys. J. Lett. 273, L75–L79 (1983).
Allan, D. W. & Winkler, G. M. R. Science 220, 776 (1983).
Zimmerman, R. L. & Hellings, R. W. Astrophys. J. 241, 475–485 (1980).
Mashhoon, B. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 199, 659–666 (1982).
Bertotti, B., Carr, B. J. & Rees, M. J. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 203, 945–954 (1983).
Krauss, L. M. Preprint (Harvard University, 1984).
Starobinsky, A. A. JETP Lett. 30, 682–685 (1979).
Vilenkin, A. Phys. Lett. 107B, 47–50 (1981).
Hogan, C. J. & Rees, M. J. Nature 311, 109–114 (1984).
Witten, E. Phys. Rev. D30, 272–285 (1984).
Detweiler, S. Astrophys. J. 234, 1100–1104 (1979).
Blandford, R., Narayan, R. & Romani, R. W. Preprint (California Institute of Technology, 1984).
Allan, D. W. et al. Proc. 15th a. Precise Time and Time Interval Applic. Planning Meet. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 1983).
Kirk, A. Proc. 37th a. Symp. Freq. Control (US Army ERADCOM and IEEE 1983).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davis, M., Taylor, J., Weisberg, J. et al. High-precision timing observations of the millisecond pulsar PSR1937 + 21. Nature 315, 547–550 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/315547a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/315547a0
This article is cited by
-
Review of pulsar timing array for gravitational wave research
Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (2020)
-
Gravitational wave astronomy: the current status
Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy (2015)
-
Upper limits on the cosmological gravitational wave background and maser clocks in space
General Relativity and Gravitation (1995)
-
First results of millisecond pulsar 1937+21 timing by TNA-1500 radio telescope of Special Research Bureau of Moscow Power Engineering Institute
Radiophysics and Quantum Electronics (1994)
-
A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR1257 + 12
Nature (1992)
