Abstract
We report the first results of the LISA Pathfinder in-flight experiment. The results demonstrate that two free-falling reference test masses, such as those needed for a space-based gravitational wave observatory like LISA, can be put in free fall with a relative acceleration noise with a square root of the power spectral density of , or g, with g the standard gravity, for frequencies between 0.7 and 20 mHz. This value is lower than the LISA Pathfinder requirement by more than a factor 5 and within a factor 1.25 of the requirement for the LISA mission, and is compatible with Brownian noise from viscous damping due to the residual gas surrounding the test masses. Above 60 mHz the acceleration noise is dominated by interferometer displacement readout noise at a level of , about 2 orders of magnitude better than requirements. At we observe a low-frequency tail that stays below down to 0.1 mHz. This performance would allow for a space-based gravitational wave observatory with a sensitivity close to what was originally foreseen for LISA.
- Received 4 May 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.231101
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Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Viewpoint
Paving the Way to Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Published 7 June 2016
The first results from the LISA Pathfinder mission demonstrate that two test masses can be put in free fall with a relative acceleration sufficiently free of noise to meet the requirements needed for space-based gravitational-wave detection.
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