Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Anne ArchibaldORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.In the published article, we presented inferences about the population of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries emitting at nanohertz gravitational-wave (GW) frequencies based on the 15 yr dataset from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). Here, we report two bugs in the astrophysical analysis software used for the published article. While parameter posteriors of our inference can be seen to have slight differences on close inspection, none of the conclusions from the original publication have changed, including the finding that the measured GW background is dominated by the most massive, high-mass-ratio SMBH binaries. Our corrected results show slightly less evidence for environmental interactions with SMBH binaries and indicate that the population of SMBH binaries contributing to the GW background occurs at slightly higher mass ratios and redshifts than indicated in the published article. Correcting these errors does not change the central conclusion that astrophysically motivated models of SMBH binary populations are able to reproduce both the amplitude and shape of the observed low-frequency GW spectrum. These errors did not affect any other analyses of the NANOGrav 15 yr dataset, including the evidence for a GW background presented in another of our published articles.
Author(s): Agazie G, Anumarlapudi A, Archibald AM, Baker PT, Becsy B, Blecha L, Bonilla A, Brazier A, Brook PR, Burke-Spolaor S, Burnette R, Case R, Casey-Clyde JA, Charisi M, Chatterjee S, Chatziioannou K, Cheeseboro BD, Chen S, Cohen T, Cordes JM, Cornish NJ, Crawford F, Cromartie HT, Crowter K, Cutler CJ, D'Orazio DJ, DeCesar ME, DeGan D, Demorest PB, Deng H, Dolch T, Drachler B, Ferrara EC, Fiore W, Fonseca E, Freedman GE, Gardiner E, Garver-Daniels N, Gentile PA, Gersbach KA, Glaser J, Good DC, Gultekin K, Hazboun JS, Hourihane S, Islo K, Jennings RJ, Johnson A, Jones ML, Kaiser AR, Kaplan DL, Kelley LZ, Kerr M, Key JS, Laal N, Lam MT, Lamb WG, W Lazio TJ, Lewandowska N, Littenberg TB, Liu T, Luo J, Lynch RS, Ma C-P, Madison DR, Matt C, McEwen A, McKee JW, McLaughlin MA, McMann N, Meyers BW, Meyers PM, Mingarelli CMF, Mitridate A, Natarajan P, Ng C, Nice DJ, Ocker SK, Olum KD, Pennucci TT, Perera BBP, Petrov P, Pol NS, Radovan HA, Ransom SM, Ray PS, Romano JD, Runnoe JC, Sardesai SC, Schmiedekamp A, Schmiedekamp C, Schmitz K, Schult L, Shapiro-Albert BJ, Siemens X, Simon J, Siwek MS, Stairs IH, Stinebring DR, Stovall K, Sun JP, Susobhanan A, Swiggum JK, Taylor J, Taylor SR, Turner JE, Unal C, Vallisneri M, Vigeland SJ, Wachter JM, Wahl HM, Wang Q, Witt CA, Wright D, Young O
Publication type: Note
Publication status: Published
Journal: Astrophysical Journal Letters
Year: 2026
Volume: 1006
Issue: 2
Print publication date: 01/08/2026
Online publication date: 31/07/2026
Acceptance date: 03/07/2026
ISSN (print): 2041-8205
ISSN (electronic): 2041-8213
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
URL: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae8764
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae8764
