The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is being designed to detect and study in detail gravitational waves from sources throughout the Universe such as massive black holes. The conceptual formulation of the LISA space-borne gravitational wave detector is now well developed. The interfer- ometric measurements between the sciencecraft remain one of the most important technological and scientific design areas for the mission.
Our work has concentrated on developing the interferometric technologies to create a LISA-like optical signal and to measure the phase of that signal using commercially available instruments. One of the most important goals of this research is to demonstrate the LISA phase timing and phase reconstruction for a LISA-like fringe signal, in the case of a high fringe rate and a low signal level. To this end we have constructed a table-top interferometer which produces LISA-like fringe signals.
Over the past few years questions have been raised concerning the use of laser communications links between sciencecraft to transmit phase information crucial to the reduction of laser frequency noise in the LISA science measurement. The concern is that applying medium frequency phase mod- ulations to the laser carrier could compromise the phase stability of the LISA fringe signal. We have modified our table-top interferometer by applying a phase modulation to the laser beam in order to evaluate the effects of such modulations on the LISA science fringe signal. We have demonstrated that the phase resolution of the science signal is not degraded by the presence of medium frequency phase modulations.
Each spacecraft in LISA houses a proof mass which follows a geodesic through space. Distur- bances that change the proof mass position, momentum, and acceleration will appear in the LISA data stream as additive quadratic functions. These data disturbances inhibit signal extraction and must be removed. Much of our analytical work has been focused on discussing the identification and fitting of monochromatic signals in the data set in the presence of data disturbances. We also present a preliminary analysis of the extent of science result limitations with respect to the frequency of data disturbances.
}, year = {2005}, }