Word.ws English Dictionary

Hellings and Downs curve

Hellings and Downs curve noun: a graph of the expected correlation of timing effects on pulsars due to cosmological gravitational waves, as a function of angle of separation of the pulsars.

Noun

Hellings and Downs curve (plural Hellings and Downs curves)

  1. A graph of the expected correlation of timing effects on pulsars due to cosmological gravitational waves, as a function of angle of separation of the pulsars.

Forms of Hellings and Downs curve

pluralHellings and Downs curves
alternative formHellings-Downs curve

Origin of Hellings and Downs curve

Named after R.W. Hellings and G.S. Downs, who first calculated it.

Questions about Hellings and Downs curve

What does Hellings and Downs curve mean?
Hellings and Downs curve means a graph of the expected correlation of timing effects on pulsars due to cosmological gravitational waves, as a function of angle of separation of the pulsars.
What part of speech is Hellings and Downs curve?
Hellings and Downs curve is a noun.
What is the plural of Hellings and Downs curve?
The plural of Hellings and Downs curve is Hellings and Downs curves.

Words near Hellings and Downs curve in the dictionary

  1. Hellinger integral
  2. Hellinger integrals
  3. Hellingers
  4. Hellingly
  5. Hellings
  6. Hellings and Downs curve
  7. Hellings and Downs curves
  8. Hellings-Downs curve
  9. hellion
  10. hellions
  11. hellish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Hellings and Downs curve (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Hellings and Downs curve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hellings_and_downs_curve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.