Environmental Coupling and the Low-Frequency Shape of the Binary Background

This paper asks a single question: How strongly do stellar scattering and gas coupling bend the binary background away from a pure power law at the lowest frequencies? Working from the published common-process amplitude of 2.4e-15 in characteristic strain at one cycle per year and the standard binary spectral index of thirteen thirds, the study computes the relevant quantities by a residence-time correction that shortens the time binaries spend at wide separations and suppresses low-frequency strain. The headline computed values are suppression_at_reference = 0.5. These values are compared throughout with the published pulsar-timing values from the North American, European, Parkes and Chinese arrays. The calculation is fully reproducible from the deposited code, and every headline number appears in the accompanying results file. This study is simulated and computed from stated assumptions; it is not a measurement, and no new timing data are presented.