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Beyond the Required LISA Free-Fall Performance: New LISA Pathfinder Results down to 20μHz

M. Armano et al.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 061101 – Published 5 February 2018
Physics logo See Synopsis: Space-Based Detection of Gravitational Waves Gets Closer
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Abstract

In the months since the publication of the first results, the noise performance of LISA Pathfinder has improved because of reduced Brownian noise due to the continued decrease in pressure around the test masses, from a better correction of noninertial effects, and from a better calibration of the electrostatic force actuation. In addition, the availability of numerous long noise measurement runs, during which no perturbation is purposely applied to the test masses, has allowed the measurement of noise with good statistics down to 20μHz. The Letter presents the measured differential acceleration noise figure, which is at (1.74±0.05)fms2/Hz above 2 mHz and (6±1)×10fms2/Hz at 20μHz, and discusses the physical sources for the measured noise. This performance provides an experimental benchmark demonstrating the ability to realize the low-frequency science potential of the LISA mission, recently selected by the European Space Agency.

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  • Received 11 December 2017
  • Revised 12 January 2018
  • Corrected 21 February 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.061101

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Corrections

21 February 2018

Correction: The first error value in the third sentence of the abstract contained a typographical error and was corrected.

Synopsis

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Space-Based Detection of Gravitational Waves Gets Closer

Published 5 February 2018

The final results from LISA Pathfinder show that the satellite’s technology meets the requirements for space-based gravitational-wave detection.

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Issue

Vol. 120, Iss. 6 — 9 February 2018

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