Tools for Robust Continuous Wave Detection in PTAs

This project focuses on developing robust methods for continuous wave (CW) detection in Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs), drawing inspiration from techniques originally developed in other gravitational wave detection contexts. By adapting ideas from CW searches in ground-based detectors, the work aims to reduce false alarms and establish the significance of CW candidates more reliably within the PTA regime. In parallel, it incorporates a method inspired by active galactic nuclei (AGN) emission modeling to estimate the statistical properties of outliers from a power-law gravitational wave background. These efforts contribute to a growing collection of tools designed to robustly detect CW signals in PTA data.