Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We present JUG (JAX-based Unified pulsar timinG), a JAX-based, fully independent pulsar timing package emphasising speed and ease of use, designed to confidently handle the increasingly large and complex pulsar timing array datasets that are being created in the pulsar timing field. JUG implements the entire pulsar timing pipeline itself, from data handling and clock corrections through to the timing model and fitting, without relying on other timing software. It enables Pythonic programming at the speed of compiled code, is GPU-capable, and can be operated via a Python API or an interactive GUI. A user of JUG can interactively explore data, fit timing models with complex stochastic noise, model deterministic signals such as continuous gravitational waves, and obtain accurate point estimates of the parameters of the stochastic processes present, thereby bridging frequentist timing and Bayesian noise analysis. JUG is faster than PINT by more than fifty times and is comparably fast to Tempo2, can handle millions of arrival times, agrees with PINT at the picosecond level, and can reliably recover known timing model and noise parameter values. In this paper we describe its design, performance, and validation, and demonstrate its advantages for pulsar timing data analysis.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Miles, Matthew T., Taylor, Stephen R., Bailes, Matthew, Chalumeau, Aurelien, Cromartie, H. Thankful, Gersbach, Kyle A., van Haasteren, Rutger, Keith, Michael J., Laal, Nima, Lam, Michael T., Liu, Kuo, Parthasarathy, Aditya, Ransom, Scott M., Reardon, Daniel J., Shannon, Ryan M., Wright, David C., Zic, Andrew
Institutions: Vanderbilt University, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, Swinburne University of Technology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace, Leibniz University Hannover, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, University of Manchester, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Oregon State University, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia Telescope National Facility
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: CAREER: Unveiling the Nanohertz GW Discovery Landscape by Broadening Participation In Multi-Messenger Astrophysics, G1418033834, NRT-WoU: Establishing Multimessenger Astronomy Inclusive Training (EMIT), High Precision and Long Duration Timing of Exotic Pulsars in Globular Clusters, NANOGrav Physics Frontier Center, Gravitational wave search with a Pulsar Timing Array in France, WoU-MMA: Mapping the host galaxies of low-frequency gravitational-wave sources, G4656594441, Collaborative Research: Building the Next-Generation NANOGrav Pulsar Timing Array with the DSA-2000, G6671297155, The NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center
OpenAlex ID: W7204856603