Coupling of wavefront errors and jitter in the LISA interferometer: far-field propagation. (29th August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sasso, C P; Mana, G; Mottini, S
• Is Part Of: Classical and quantum gravity. Volume 35:Number 18(2018:Sep.)
• Publication Date: 2018-08-29
• Subjects: gravitational waves measurement -- long baseline optical interferometry -- optical far field propagation -- Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA); Quantum gravity -- Periodicals; Gravitation -- Periodicals; Relativity (Physics) -- Periodicals; Space and time -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 521.1
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/aad7f5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0264-9381

Abstract

Abstract: The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a gravitational wave detector, which aims to detect 10 −20 strains in the frequency range from 0.1 mHz to 0.1 Hz. It is a constellation of three spacecrafts, an equilateral triangle with side length of m, where interferometry monitors the spacecraft distances. Aberrations and jitter of the wavefront sent by a spacecraft to the next combine to cause a measurement noise. The paper investigates analytically this coupling, including beam clipping and far-field propagation, and develops criteria for the assessment of the wavefront quality. It also gives the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the measurement noise for arbitrary wavefront aberrations and jitters.