LISA Performance and operations

The Trento group supports the overall definition and development of the LISA mission, from the measurement concept to the hardware design to the data analysis and operations. Specific research areas include:

• LISA system definition – instrument, spacecraft, and constellation design and operations – through the ESA LISA “system engineering office” (SEO).

• Detailed performance modeling for the LISA performance budget, especially test mass acceleration noise.

• Analysis and simulation of instrument noise and LISA calibration experiments.

The LISA Pathfinder experience of running a laboratory for quantifying the various sources of stray forces has led to an effort to understand and calibrate test mass acceleration noise sources in orbit with LISA. In co-leading the LISA simulation group we hope to design analysis techniques and specific experiments to quantify and, where possible, mitigate or subtract various possible disturbances in the LISA data.

• Time delay interferometry, initial steps in processing LISA data, and discrimination of instrument noise.

LISA raw data are dominated first by laser frequency noise and clock noise, requiring a dedicated “time delay interferometry” processing, followed by gravitational wave signals in much of the measurement bandwidth. As such quantifying the underlying instrument noise, for instance from stray TM acceleration, and discriminating this from possible noisy gravitational wave backgrounds, is both non-trivial and important for maximizing the LISA science return. The group has started an activity in LISA initial data processing and TDI, in preparation for LISA operations.