The European pulsar timing array

Abstract

The European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) is a collaboration between the five largest radio telescopes in Europe: Effelsberg in Germany, Westerbork in the Netherlands, Nançay in France, the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in the UK and the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy, which is under construction. These facilities will combine their observations of an array of millisecond pulsars, with the primary aim of detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background at the Earth. For maximum sensitivity, the EPTA will also collaborate with other timing projects to produce a global timing array. In the future, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is very likely to be used to study gravitational waves using pulsars.