Design Blueprint: A Pulsar Timing Array Network: Pulsar Count, Timing Precision and Span Required for a Stated Nanohertz Background Amplitude

Design blueprint derived from the source paper (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.24150311): A pulsar timing array is designed backwards from a target: the smallest nanohertz gravitational-wave background amplitude it must detect. With 68 millisecond pulsars timed to 80 ns root-mean-square every 14 days for 20 years (522 observations per pulsar), the computed detectable characteristic-strain amplitude at a reference frequency of one per year is 6.80e-16. The array's sensitivity improves s Status: DESIGN BLUEPRINT — SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED — NOT BUILT. All numbers are simulated values from the source paper's computation, deposited with this blueprint as compute.py and results.json. AI-use disclosure: Dave, an AI research system, assisted with the computation and drafting under the author's direction; author of record William Alexander Aldred.