Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21833104c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #331.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a joint NASA/ESA project designed to detect gravitational waves. The University of Florida (UF) LISA laboratory is currently implementing and testing much of the instrumentation of the LISA interferometer measurement system to ensure the success of the upcoming LISA mission. LISA will consist of three spacecraft (SC) orbiting the sun in an equilateral triangular formation with an arm length of 5 Gm. Each SC will house two free floating proof-masses, two laser interferometer benches and two telescopes to transmit the laser light between SC. The constellation will trail the earth by 20° and be tilted by 60° with respect to the ecliptic. LISA is designed to detect low frequency gravitational waves (GWs) in the frequency band of .1mHz to 1 Hz with optimal strain sensitivity of 10^-21/sqrt(Hz) at 3 mHz corresponding to sources such as galactic binaries and black hole mergers. The dimensional stability of all optical paths within each interferometer arm is imperative for the success of LISA. Changes larger than a pm/sqrt(Hz) in the distance between optical components in the interferometer would limit the sensitivity of LISA. The UF LISA lab is testing materials with low thermal expansion coefficients which could be used as spacer materials for the telescopes or as the base material for the optical benches. Together with the LISA group at Goddard Space Flight Center we currently also test the dimensional stability of a silicon carbide telescope structure for LISA. The most demanding requirement on material stability is the requirement for the optical reference cavity which is used as the frequency reference for the lasers. We currently test different sensing schemes for the laser frequency stabilization system of LISA and will also report about these experiments. This work is supported by NASA Contract #00078244 and NASA Grant NNX08AG75G.
Arsenovic Petar
Cordes Amanda
Donelan D.
Eichholz Johannes
Korytov D.
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