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Precision measurements of the magnetic parameters of LISA Pathfinder test masses
Authors:
M Armano,
H Audley,
J Baird,
P Binetruy,
M Born,
D Bortoluzzi,
E Castelli,
A Cavalleri,
A Cesarini,
A M Cruise,
K Danzmann,
M De Deus Silva,
I Diepholz,
G Dixon,
R Dolesi,
L Ferraioli,
V Ferroni,
E D Fitzsimons,
M Freschi,
L Gesa,
D Giardini,
F Gibert,
R Giusteri,
C Grimani,
J Grzymisch
, et al. (54 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
A precise characterization of the magnetic properties of LISA Pathfinder free falling test-masses is of special interest for future gravitational wave observatory in space. Magnetic forces have an important impact on the instrument sensitivity in the low frequency regime below the millihertz. In this paper we report on the magnetic injection experiments performed throughout LISA Pathfinder operati…
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A precise characterization of the magnetic properties of LISA Pathfinder free falling test-masses is of special interest for future gravitational wave observatory in space. Magnetic forces have an important impact on the instrument sensitivity in the low frequency regime below the millihertz. In this paper we report on the magnetic injection experiments performed throughout LISA Pathfinder operations. We show how these experiments allowed a high precision estimate of the instrument magnetic parameters. The remanent magnetic moment was found to have a modulus of $(0.245\pm0.081)\,\rm{nAm}^2$, the x-component of the background magnetic field within the test masses position was measured to be $(414 \pm 74)$ nT and its gradient had a value of $(-7.4\pm 2.1)\,μ$T/m. Finally, we also measured the test mass magnetic susceptibility to be $(-3.35\pm0.15)\times$10$^{-5}$ in the low frequency regime. All results are in agreement with on-ground estimates.
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Submitted 5 November, 2024; v1 submitted 5 July, 2024;
originally announced July 2024.
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Magnetic-induced force noise in LISA Pathfinder free-falling test masses
Authors:
M Armano,
H Audley,
J Baird,
P Binetruy,
M Born,
D Bortoluzzi,
E Castelli,
A Cavalleri,
A Cesarini,
A M Cruise,
K Danzmann,
M De Deus Silva,
I Diepholz,
G Dixon,
R Dolesi,
L Ferraioli,
V Ferroni,
E D Fitzsimons,
M Freschi,
L Gesa,
D Giardini,
F Gibert,
R Giusteri,
C Grimani,
J Grzymisch
, et al. (54 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
LISA Pathfinder was a mission designed to test key technologies required for gravitational wave detection in space. Magnetically driven forces play a key role in the instrument sensitivity in the low-frequency regime, which corresponds to the measurement band of interest for future space-borne gravitational wave observatories. Magnetic-induced forces couple to the test mass motion, introducing a c…
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LISA Pathfinder was a mission designed to test key technologies required for gravitational wave detection in space. Magnetically driven forces play a key role in the instrument sensitivity in the low-frequency regime, which corresponds to the measurement band of interest for future space-borne gravitational wave observatories. Magnetic-induced forces couple to the test mass motion, introducing a contribution to the relative acceleration noise between the free falling test masses. In this Letter we present the first complete estimate of this term of the instrument performance model. Our results set the magnetic-induced acceleration noise during the February 2017 noise run of $\rm 0.25_{-0.08}^{+0.15}\,fm\,s^{-2}/\sqrt{Hz}$ at 1 mHz and $\rm 1.01_{-0.24}^{+0.73}\, fm\,s^{-2}/\sqrt{Hz}$ at 0.1 mHz. We also discuss how the non-stationarities of the interplanetary magnetic field can affect these values during extreme space weather conditions.
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Submitted 5 November, 2024; v1 submitted 5 July, 2024;
originally announced July 2024.
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LISA Definition Study Report
Authors:
Monica Colpi,
Karsten Danzmann,
Martin Hewitson,
Kelly Holley-Bockelmann,
Philippe Jetzer,
Gijs Nelemans,
Antoine Petiteau,
David Shoemaker,
Carlos Sopuerta,
Robin Stebbins,
Nial Tanvir,
Henry Ward,
William Joseph Weber,
Ira Thorpe,
Anna Daurskikh,
Atul Deep,
Ignacio Fernández Núñez,
César García Marirrodriga,
Martin Gehler,
Jean-Philippe Halain,
Oliver Jennrich,
Uwe Lammers,
Jonan Larrañaga,
Maike Lieser,
Nora Lützgendorf
, et al. (86 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is the first scientific endeavour to detect and study gravitational waves from space. LISA will survey the sky for Gravitational Waves in the 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz frequency band which will enable the study of a vast number of objects ranging from Galactic binaries and stellar mass black holes in the Milky Way, to distant massive black-hole mergers and the e…
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The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is the first scientific endeavour to detect and study gravitational waves from space. LISA will survey the sky for Gravitational Waves in the 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz frequency band which will enable the study of a vast number of objects ranging from Galactic binaries and stellar mass black holes in the Milky Way, to distant massive black-hole mergers and the expansion of the Universe. This definition study report, or Red Book, presents a summary of the very large body of work that has been undertaken on the LISA mission over the LISA definition phase.
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Submitted 12 February, 2024;
originally announced February 2024.
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NanoNewton electrostatic force actuators for femtoNewton-sensitive measurements: system performance test in the LISA Pathfinder mission
Authors:
M Armano,
H Audley,
J Baird,
M Bassan,
P Binetruy,
M Born,
D Bortoluzzi,
E Castelli,
A Cavalleri,
A Cesarini,
V Chiavegato,
A M Cruise,
D Dal Bosco,
K Danzmann,
M De Deus Silva,
R De Rosa,
L Di Fiore,
I Diepholz,
G Dixon,
R Dolesi,
L Ferraioli V Ferroni,
E D Fitzsimons,
M Freschi,
L Gesa,
D Giardini
, et al. (65 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
Electrostatic force actuation is a key component of the system of geodesic reference test masses (TM) for the LISA orbiting gravitational wave observatory and in particular for performance at low frequencies, below 1 mHz, where the observatory sensitivity is limited by stray force noise. The system needs to apply forces of order 10$^{-9}$ N while limiting fluctuations in the measurement band to le…
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Electrostatic force actuation is a key component of the system of geodesic reference test masses (TM) for the LISA orbiting gravitational wave observatory and in particular for performance at low frequencies, below 1 mHz, where the observatory sensitivity is limited by stray force noise. The system needs to apply forces of order 10$^{-9}$ N while limiting fluctuations in the measurement band to levels approaching 10$^{-15}$ N/Hz$^{1/2}$. We present here the LISA actuation system design, based on audio-frequency voltage carrier signals, and results of its in-flight performance test with the LISA Pathfinder test mission. In LISA, TM force actuation is used to align the otherwise free-falling TM to the spacecraft-mounted optical metrology system, without any forcing along the critical gravitational wave-sensitive interferometry axes. In LISA Pathfinder, on the other hand, the actuation was used also to stabilize the TM along the critical $x$ axis joining the two TM, with the commanded actuation force entering directly into the mission's main differential acceleration science observable. The mission allowed demonstration of the full compatibility of the electrostatic actuation system with the LISA observatory requirements, including dedicated measurement campaigns to amplify, isolate, and quantify the two main force noise contributions from the actuation system, from actuator gain noise and from low frequency ``in band'' voltage fluctuations. These campaigns have shown actuation force noise to be a relevant, but not dominant, noise source in LISA Pathfinder and have allowed performance projections for the conditions expected in the LISA mission.
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Submitted 30 December, 2023;
originally announced January 2024.
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Chasing Super-Massive Black Hole merging events with $Athena$ and LISA
Authors:
L. Piro,
M. Colpi,
J. Aird,
A. Mangiagli,
A. C. Fabian,
M. Guainazzi,
S. Marsat,
A. Sesana,
P. McNamara,
M. Bonetti,
E. M. Rossi,
N. R. Tanvir,
J. G. Baker,
G. Belanger,
T. Dal Canton,
O. Jennrich,
M. L. Katz,
N. Luetzgendorf
Abstract:
The European Space Agency is studying two large-class missions bound to operate in the decade of the 30s, and aiming at investigating the most energetic and violent phenomena in the Universe. $Athena$ is poised to study the physical conditions of baryons locked in large-scale structures from the epoch of their formation, as well as to yield an accurate census of accreting super-massive black holes…
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The European Space Agency is studying two large-class missions bound to operate in the decade of the 30s, and aiming at investigating the most energetic and violent phenomena in the Universe. $Athena$ is poised to study the physical conditions of baryons locked in large-scale structures from the epoch of their formation, as well as to yield an accurate census of accreting super-massive black holes down to the epoch of reionization; LISA will extend the hunt for Gravitational Wave (GW) events to the hitherto unexplored mHz regime. We discuss in this paper the science that their concurrent operation could yield, and present possible $Athena$ observational strategies. We focus on Super-Massive (M$\lesssim10^7\rm M_{\odot}$) Black Hole Mergers (SMBHMs), potentially accessible to $Athena$ up to $z\sim2$. The simultaneous measurement of their electro-magnetic (EM) and GW signals may enable unique experiments in the domains of astrophysics, fundamental physics, and cosmography, such as the magneto-hydrodynamics of fluid flows in a rapidly variable space-time, the formation of coronae and jets in Active Galactic Nuclei, and the measurement of the speed of GW, among others. Key to achieve these breakthrough results will be the LISA capability of locating a SMBHM event with an error box comparable to, or better than the field-of-view of the $Athena$ Wide Field Imager ($\simeq0.4\,$deg$^2$) and $Athena$ capability to slew fast to detect the source during the inspiral phase and the post-merger phase. Together, the two observatories will open in principle the exciting possibility of truly concurrent EM and GW studies of the SMBHMs
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Submitted 28 February, 2023; v1 submitted 24 November, 2022;
originally announced November 2022.
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Unveiling the Gravitational Universe at μ-Hz Frequencies
Authors:
Alberto Sesana,
Natalia Korsakova,
Manuel Arca Sedda,
Vishal Baibhav,
Enrico Barausse,
Simon Barke,
Emanuele Berti,
Matteo Bonetti,
Pedro R. Capelo,
Chiara Caprini,
Juan Garcia-Bellido,
Zoltan Haiman,
Karan Jani,
Oliver Jennrich,
Peter Johansson,
Fazeel Mahmood Khan,
Valeriya Korol,
Astrid Lamberts,
Alessandro Lupi,
Alberto Mangiagli,
Lucio Mayer,
Germano Nardini,
Fabio Pacucci,
Antoine Petiteau,
Alvise Raccanelli
, et al. (9 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
We propose a space-based interferometer surveying the gravitational wave (GW) sky in the milli-Hz to $μ$-Hz frequency range. By the 2040s', the $μ$-Hz frequency band, bracketed in between the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and pulsar timing arrays, will constitute the largest gap in the coverage of the astrophysically relevant GW spectrum. Yet many outstanding questions related to astro…
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We propose a space-based interferometer surveying the gravitational wave (GW) sky in the milli-Hz to $μ$-Hz frequency range. By the 2040s', the $μ$-Hz frequency band, bracketed in between the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and pulsar timing arrays, will constitute the largest gap in the coverage of the astrophysically relevant GW spectrum. Yet many outstanding questions related to astrophysics and cosmology are best answered by GW observations in this band. We show that a $μ$-Hz GW detector will be a truly overarching observatory for the scientific community at large, greatly extending the potential of LISA. Conceived to detect massive black hole binaries from their early inspiral with high signal-to-noise ratio, and low-frequency stellar binaries in the Galaxy, this instrument will be a cornerstone for multimessenger astronomy from the solar neighbourhood to the high-redshift Universe.
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Submitted 29 August, 2019;
originally announced August 2019.
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Temperature stability in the sub-milliHertz band with LISA Pathfinder
Authors:
M. Armano,
H. Audley,
J. Baird,
P. Binetruy,
M. Born,
D. Bortoluzzi,
E. Castelli,
A. Cavalleri,
A. Cesarini,
A. M. Cruise,
K. Danzmann,
M. de Deus Silva,
I. Diepholz,
G. Dixon,
R. Dolesi,
L. Ferraioli,
V. Ferroni,
E. D. Fitzsimons,
M. Freschi,
L. Gesa,
F. Gibert,
D. Giardini,
R. Giusteri,
C. Grimani,
J. Grzymisch
, et al. (57 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) was a technology pioneering mission designed to test key technologies required for gravitational wave detection in space. In the low frequency regime (milli-Hertz and below), where space-based gravitational wave observatories will operate, temperature fluctuations play a crucial role since they can couple into the interferometric measurement and the test masses' free-fall acc…
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LISA Pathfinder (LPF) was a technology pioneering mission designed to test key technologies required for gravitational wave detection in space. In the low frequency regime (milli-Hertz and below), where space-based gravitational wave observatories will operate, temperature fluctuations play a crucial role since they can couple into the interferometric measurement and the test masses' free-fall accuracy in many ways. A dedicated temperature measurement subsystem, with noise levels in 10$\,μ$K$\,$Hz$^{-1/2}$ down to $1\,$mHz was part of the diagnostics unit on board LPF. In this paper we report on the temperature measurements throughout mission operations, characterize the thermal environment, estimate transfer functions between different locations and report temperature stability (and its time evolution) at frequencies as low as 10$\,μ$Hz, where typically values around $1\,$K$\,$Hz$^{-1/2}$ were measured.
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Submitted 22 May, 2019;
originally announced May 2019.
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Optimal design of calibration signals in space borne gravitational wave detectors
Authors:
M. Nofrarias,
N. Karnesis,
F. Gibert,
M. Armano,
H. Audley. K. Danzmann,
I. Diepholz,
R. Dolesi,
L. Ferraioli,
V. Ferroni,
M. Hewitson,
M. Hueller,
H. Inchauspe,
O. Jennrich,
N. Korsakova. P. W. McNamara,
E. Plagnol,
J. I. Thorpe,
D. Vetrugno,
S. Vitale,
P. Wass,
W. J. Weber
Abstract:
Future space borne gravitational wave detectors will require a precise definition of calibration signals to ensure the achievement of their design sensitivity. The careful design of the test signals plays a key role in the correct understanding and characterisation of these instruments. In that sense, methods achieving optimal experiment designs must be considered as complementary to the parameter…
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Future space borne gravitational wave detectors will require a precise definition of calibration signals to ensure the achievement of their design sensitivity. The careful design of the test signals plays a key role in the correct understanding and characterisation of these instruments. In that sense, methods achieving optimal experiment designs must be considered as complementary to the parameter estimation methods being used to determine the parameters describing the system. The relevance of experiment design is particularly significant for the LISA Pathfinder mission, which will spend most of its operation time performing experiments to characterise key technologies for future space borne gravitational wave observatories. Here we propose a framework to derive the optimal signals ---in terms of minimum parameter uncertainty--- to be injected to these instruments during its calibration phase. We compare our results with an alternative numerical algorithm which achieves an optimal input signal by iteratively improving an initial guess. We show agreement of both approaches when applied to the LISA Pathfinder case.
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Submitted 30 November, 2015;
originally announced November 2015.
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Free-flight experiments in LISA Pathfinder
Authors:
M. Armano,
H. Audley,
G. Auger,
J. Baird,
P. Binetruy,
M. Born,
D. Bortoluzzi,
N. Brandt,
A. Bursi,
M. Caleno,
A. Cavalleri,
A. Cesarini,
M. Cruise,
C. Cutler,
K. Danzmann,
I. Diepholz,
R. Dolesi,
N. Dunbar,
L. Ferraioli,
V. Ferroni,
E. Fitzsimons,
M. Freschi,
J. Gallegos,
C. Garcia. Marirrodriga,
R. Gerndt
, et al. (67 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
The LISA Pathfinder mission will demonstrate the technology of drag-free test masses for use as inertial references in future space-based gravitational wave detectors. To accomplish this, the Pathfinder spacecraft will perform drag-free flight about a test mass while measuring the acceleration of this primary test mass relative to a second reference test mass. Because the reference test mass is co…
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The LISA Pathfinder mission will demonstrate the technology of drag-free test masses for use as inertial references in future space-based gravitational wave detectors. To accomplish this, the Pathfinder spacecraft will perform drag-free flight about a test mass while measuring the acceleration of this primary test mass relative to a second reference test mass. Because the reference test mass is contained within the same spacecraft, it is necessary to apply forces on it to maintain its position and attitude relative to the spacecraft. These forces are a potential source of acceleration noise in the LISA Pathfinder system that are not present in the full LISA configuration. While LISA Pathfinder has been designed to meet it's primary mission requirements in the presence of this noise, recent estimates suggest that the on-orbit performance may be limited by this `suspension noise'. The drift-mode or free-flight experiments provide an opportunity to mitigate this noise source and further characterize the underlying disturbances that are of interest to the designers of LISA-like instruments. This article provides a high-level overview of these experiments and the methods under development to analyze the resulting data.
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Submitted 29 December, 2014;
originally announced December 2014.
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Data series subtraction with unknown and unmodeled background noise
Authors:
Stefano Vitale,
Giuseppe Congedo,
Rita Dolesi,
Valerio Ferroni,
Mauro Hueller,
Daniele Vetrugno,
William Joseph Weber,
Heather Audley,
Karsten Danzmann,
Ingo Diepholz,
Martin Hewitson,
Natalia Korsakova,
Luigi Ferraioli,
Ferran Gibert,
Nikolaos Karnesis,
Miquel Nofrarias,
Henri Inchauspe,
Eric Plagnol,
Oliver Jennrich,
Paul W. McNamara,
Michele Armano,
James Ira Thorpe,
Peter Wass
Abstract:
LISA Pathfinder (LPF), ESA's precursor mission to a gravitational wave observatory, will measure the degree to which two test-masses can be put into free-fall, aiming to demonstrate a residual relative acceleration with a power spectral density (PSD) below 30 fm/s$^2$/Hz$^{1/2}$ around 1 mHz. In LPF data analysis, the measured relative acceleration data series must be fit to other various measured…
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LISA Pathfinder (LPF), ESA's precursor mission to a gravitational wave observatory, will measure the degree to which two test-masses can be put into free-fall, aiming to demonstrate a residual relative acceleration with a power spectral density (PSD) below 30 fm/s$^2$/Hz$^{1/2}$ around 1 mHz. In LPF data analysis, the measured relative acceleration data series must be fit to other various measured time series data. This fitting is required in different experiments, from system identification of the test mass and satellite dynamics to the subtraction of noise contributions from measured known disturbances. In all cases, the background noise, described by the PSD of the fit residuals, is expected to be coloured, requiring that we perform such fits in the frequency domain. This PSD is unknown {\it a priori}, and a high accuracy estimate of this residual acceleration noise is an essential output of our analysis. In this paper we present a fitting method based on Bayesian parameter estimation with an unknown frequency-dependent background noise. The method uses noise marginalisation in connection with averaged Welch's periodograms to achieve unbiased parameter estimation, together with a consistent, non-parametric estimate of the residual PSD. Additionally, we find that the method is equivalent to some implementations of iteratively re-weighted least-squares fitting. We have tested the method both on simulated data of known PSD, and to analyze differential acceleration from several experiments with the LISA Pathfinder end-to-end mission simulator.
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Submitted 4 August, 2014; v1 submitted 18 April, 2014;
originally announced April 2014.
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State space modelling and data analysis exercises in LISA Pathfinder
Authors:
M Nofrarias,
F Antonucci,
M Armano,
H Audley,
G Auger,
M Benedetti,
P Binetruy,
J Bogenstahl,
D Bortoluzzi,
N Brandt,
M Caleno,
A Cavalleri,
G Congedo,
M Cruise,
K Danzmann,
F De Marchi,
M Diaz-Aguilo,
I Diepholz,
G Dixon,
R Dolesi,
N Dunbar,
J Fauste,
L Ferraioli,
V Ferroni W Fichter,
E Fitzsimons
, et al. (61 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
LISA Pathfinder is a mission planned by the European Space Agency to test the key technologies that will allow the detection of gravitational waves in space. The instrument on-board, the LISA Technology package, will undergo an exhaustive campaign of calibrations and noise characterisation campaigns in order to fully describe the noise model. Data analysis plays an important role in the mission an…
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LISA Pathfinder is a mission planned by the European Space Agency to test the key technologies that will allow the detection of gravitational waves in space. The instrument on-board, the LISA Technology package, will undergo an exhaustive campaign of calibrations and noise characterisation campaigns in order to fully describe the noise model. Data analysis plays an important role in the mission and for that reason the data analysis team has been developing a toolbox which contains all the functionalities required during operations. In this contribution we give an overview of recent activities, focusing on the improvements in the modelling of the instrument and in the data analysis campaigns performed both with real and simulated data.
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Submitted 21 June, 2013; v1 submitted 19 June, 2013;
originally announced June 2013.
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Breadboard model of the LISA phasemeter
Authors:
Oliver Gerberding,
Simon Barke,
Ioury Bykov,
Karsten Danzmann,
Anders Enggaard,
Juan Jose Esteban,
Alberto Gianolio,
Torben Vendt Hansen,
Gerhard Heinzel,
Allan Hornstrup,
Oliver Jennrich,
Joachim Kullmann,
Søren Møller Pedersen,
Torben Rasmussen,
Jens Reiche,
Zoran Sodnik,
Martin Suess
Abstract:
An elegant breadboard model of the LISA phasemeter is currently under development by a Danish-German consortium. The breadboard is build in the frame of an ESA technology development activity to demonstrate the feasibility and readiness of the LISA metrology baseline architecture. This article gives an overview about the breadboard design and its components, including the distribution of key funct…
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An elegant breadboard model of the LISA phasemeter is currently under development by a Danish-German consortium. The breadboard is build in the frame of an ESA technology development activity to demonstrate the feasibility and readiness of the LISA metrology baseline architecture. This article gives an overview about the breadboard design and its components, including the distribution of key functionalities.
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Submitted 27 January, 2013; v1 submitted 31 August, 2012;
originally announced August 2012.
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Real-time phasefront detector for heterodyne interferometers
Authors:
Felipe Guzmán Cervantes,
Gerhard Heinzel,
Antonio F. García Marín,
Vinzenz Wand,
Frank Steier,
Oliver Jennrich,
Karsten Danzmann
Abstract:
We present a real-time differential phasefront detector sensitive to better than 3 mrad rms, which corresponds to a precision of about 500 pm. This detector performs a spatially resolving measurement of the phasefront of a heterodyne interferometer, with heterodyne frequencies up to approximately 10 kHz. This instrument was developed as part of the research for the LISA Technology Package (LTP) in…
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We present a real-time differential phasefront detector sensitive to better than 3 mrad rms, which corresponds to a precision of about 500 pm. This detector performs a spatially resolving measurement of the phasefront of a heterodyne interferometer, with heterodyne frequencies up to approximately 10 kHz. This instrument was developed as part of the research for the LISA Technology Package (LTP) interferometer, and will assist in the manufacture of its flight model. Due to the advantages this instrument offers, it also has general applications in optical metrology.
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Submitted 20 March, 2012;
originally announced March 2012.
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Low-frequency gravitational-wave science with eLISA/NGO
Authors:
Pau Amaro-Seoane,
Sofiane Aoudia,
Stanislav Babak,
Pierre Binétruy,
Emanuele Berti,
Alejandro Bohé,
Chiara Caprini,
Monica Colpi,
Neil J. Cornish,
Karsten Danzmann,
Jean-François Dufaux,
Jonathan Gair,
Oliver Jennrich,
Philippe Jetzer,
Antoine Klein,
Ryan N. Lang,
Alberto Lobo,
Tyson Littenberg,
Sean T. McWilliams,
Gijs Nelemans,
Antoine Petiteau,
Edward K. Porter,
Bernard F. Schutz,
Alberto Sesana,
Robin Stebbins
, et al. (5 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
We review the expected science performance of the New Gravitational-Wave Observatory (NGO, a.k.a. eLISA), a mission under study by the European Space Agency for launch in the early 2020s. eLISA will survey the low-frequency gravitational-wave sky (from 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz), detecting and characterizing a broad variety of systems and events throughout the Universe, including the coalescences of massive…
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We review the expected science performance of the New Gravitational-Wave Observatory (NGO, a.k.a. eLISA), a mission under study by the European Space Agency for launch in the early 2020s. eLISA will survey the low-frequency gravitational-wave sky (from 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz), detecting and characterizing a broad variety of systems and events throughout the Universe, including the coalescences of massive black holes brought together by galaxy mergers; the inspirals of stellar-mass black holes and compact stars into central galactic black holes; several millions of ultracompact binaries, both detached and mass transferring, in the Galaxy; and possibly unforeseen sources such as the relic gravitational-wave radiation from the early Universe. eLISA's high signal-to-noise measurements will provide new insight into the structure and history of the Universe, and they will test general relativity in its strong-field dynamical regime.
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Submitted 12 September, 2012; v1 submitted 3 February, 2012;
originally announced February 2012.
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eLISA: Astrophysics and cosmology in the millihertz regime
Authors:
Pau Amaro-Seoane,
Sofiane Aoudia,
Stanislav Babak,
Pierre Binétruy,
Emanuele Berti,
Alejandro Bohé,
Chiara Caprini,
Monica Colpi,
Neil J. Cornish,
Karsten Danzmann,
Jean-François Dufaux,
Jonathan Gair,
Oliver Jennrich,
Philippe Jetzer,
Antoine Klein,
Ryan N. Lang,
Alberto Lobo,
Tyson Littenberg,
Sean T. McWilliams,
Gijs Nelemans,
Antoine Petiteau,
Edward K. Porter,
Bernard F. Schutz,
Alberto Sesana,
Robin Stebbins
, et al. (5 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
This document introduces the exciting and fundamentally new science and astronomy that the European New Gravitational Wave Observatory (NGO) mission (derived from the previous LISA proposal) will deliver. The mission (which we will refer to by its informal name "eLISA") will survey for the first time the low-frequency gravitational wave band (about 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz), with sufficient sensitivity to…
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This document introduces the exciting and fundamentally new science and astronomy that the European New Gravitational Wave Observatory (NGO) mission (derived from the previous LISA proposal) will deliver. The mission (which we will refer to by its informal name "eLISA") will survey for the first time the low-frequency gravitational wave band (about 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz), with sufficient sensitivity to detect interesting individual astrophysical sources out to z = 15. The eLISA mission will discover and study a variety of cosmic events and systems with high sensitivity: coalescences of massive black holes binaries, brought together by galaxy mergers; mergers of earlier, less-massive black holes during the epoch of hierarchical galaxy and black-hole growth; stellar-mass black holes and compact stars in orbits just skimming the horizons of massive black holes in galactic nuclei of the present era; extremely compact white dwarf binaries in our Galaxy, a rich source of information about binary evolution and about future Type Ia supernovae; and possibly most interesting of all, the uncertain and unpredicted sources, for example relics of inflation and of the symmetry-breaking epoch directly after the Big Bang. eLISA's measurements will allow detailed studies of these signals with high signal-to-noise ratio, addressing most of the key scientific questions raised by ESA's Cosmic Vision programme in the areas of astrophysics and cosmology. They will also provide stringent tests of general relativity in the strong-field dynamical regime, which cannot be probed in any other way. This document not only describes the science but also gives an overview on the mission design and orbits.
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Submitted 17 January, 2012;
originally announced January 2012.
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From laboratory experiments to LISA Pathfinder: achieving LISA geodesic motion
Authors:
F Antonucci,
M Armano,
H Audley,
G Auger,
M Benedetti,
P Binetruy,
C Boatella,
J Bogenstahl,
D Bortoluzzi,
P Bosetti,
N Brandt,
M Caleno,
A Cavalleri,
M Cesa,
M Chmeissani,
G Ciani,
A Conchillo,
G Congedo,
I Cristofolini,
M Cruise,
K Danzmann,
F De Marchi,
M Diaz-Aguilo,
I Diepholz,
G Dixon
, et al. (76 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
This paper presents a quantitative assessment of the performance of the upcoming LISA Pathfinder geodesic explorer mission. The findings are based on the results of extensive ground testing and simulation campaigns using flight hardware and flight control and operations algorithms. The results show that, for the central experiment of measuring the stray differential acceleration between the LISA t…
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This paper presents a quantitative assessment of the performance of the upcoming LISA Pathfinder geodesic explorer mission. The findings are based on the results of extensive ground testing and simulation campaigns using flight hardware and flight control and operations algorithms. The results show that, for the central experiment of measuring the stray differential acceleration between the LISA test masses, LISA Pathfinder will be able to verify the overall acceleration noise to within a factor two of the LISA requirement at 1 mHz and within a factor 6 at 0.1 mHz. We also discuss the key elements of the physical model of disturbances, coming from LISA Pathfinder and ground measurement, that will guarantee the LISA performance.
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Submitted 20 January, 2011; v1 submitted 29 December, 2010;
originally announced December 2010.