Observing a Gravitational Wave Background With Lisa; Conference paper

摘要

LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a proposed space mission which will use coherent laser beams exchanged between three remote spacecraft, to detect and study low-frequency cosmic gravitational radiation. The multiple Doppler readouts available with LISA, which incorporate frequency standards for measuring phase differences between the received and transmitted laser beams, permit simultaneous formation of several observables. All are independent of lasers and frequency standard phase fluctuations, but have different couplings to gravitational waves and to the various LISA instrumental noises. Comparison of the conventional Michelson interferometer observable with the fully-symmetric Sagnac data-type allows unambiguous discrimination between a gravitational wave background and instrumental noise. The method presented here can be used to detect a confusion-limited gravitational wave background.