Data science for the study of gravitational waves with high precision pulsar timing

Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars which sweep out beams of radiation along the poles of their extremely strong magnetic fields. We observe a pulse of radio waves from the pulsar each time its beam of emission sweeps across the Earth. The most rapidly rotating pulsars, which have spin periods of a few milliseconds, act as incredibly stable clocks and can be used in experiments of gravitational physics. We are working as part of a large international collaboration, the European Pulsar Timing Array, to detect gravitational waves from supermassive black-hole binaries at the centre of distant galaxies. This PhD project involves developing robust statistical data analysis techniques to improve the pulsar timing array sensitivity by better understanding the various noise processes in the data. These processes are themselves interesting topics of study, covering processes fundamental to the pulsar itself as well as allowing for study of the turbulent interstellar plasma that lies between us and the pulsar.