LISA R&D

Collaboration:

- Italy: Trento Univ and INFN , Perugia Univ and INFN, ASI,
- ESA
- NASA

National Responsible: S. Vitale (Trento)

Laboratory: Space mission

1. Goal of the experiment

LISA, Laser Interferometer Space Antenna for the detection of Gravitational waves, is a project aimed at placing in a heliocentric orbit, a constellation of three spacecraft acting as agravitational wave antenna for signals in the frequency range between 0.1 mHz and 0.1 Hz.

More on the experiment…

2.

Activities in 2001

After a study phase to assess the most relevant source of noise, we have designed and built an inertial sensor with 100 µm precision machining, for overall functionality testing of the design and of the electronics.

We have performed a few tests on the fabrication technology of the electrode housing for a 3 µm precision machined prototype. The technology uses a composite Mo Ceramic construction. The results have been satisfactory. As a consequence we have now designed a prototype based on this technology which is currently under fabrication.

We have designed a torsion pendulum test bench including a vacuum chamber and a micro-positioning system for the test-mass. The pendulum is now under assemblage.

We have designed and built the readout electronics including an oscillator, a Blumlein bridge, a preamplifier and a PSD.

We have performed a full noise calculation for the readout electronics. Preliminary tests agree quantitatively with the calculation. We have also a preliminary design of a low frequency suspension loop, a key feature for LISA, with a numerical simulation of its performance.

Milestones 2002

Final design of the inertial sensor for the demonstration mission SMART2 | 30-06-2002
Realization of the Engineering Model of the sensor | 31-12-2002
Validation and test of the parasitic forces | 31-12-2002
Participation to the architecture of the flight test of the sensor for the SMART2 mission | 31-12-2002

3. INFN contribution to the experiment in terms of manpower and financial support

Manpower: the group is composed of 5 researchers associated to INFN.

Budget for the Year 2002: 26.5 kEuro.

4. Number of Publications in refereed journals: 2

5. Conference talks:

6. Number of undergraduate and doctoral thesis in the experiment

1 graduate student

7. Leadership roles and primary responsibilities in the experiment

- Member of the core ESA science team
- Member of the international LISA team (ESA/NASA)
- Prime contractor ESTEC/Contract n. 13691/99/NL/FM(SC), "drag-free satellite for ELITE" (Lisa technology demonstration) with Imperial College, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Birmingham University.
- Subcontractor to ASTRIUM, LISA System Level Study, ESA
- Chair, ESA's Fundamental Physics Advisory Group. Member of ESA Space Science Advisory Committee.

8. Innovative instruments

Development of a gravitational sensor for LISA.

Development of a torsion pendulum based test bench for parasitic forces.

9. Competing experiments

There are no competing experiments. There is a general consensus that ground based experiments that search for waves in the audio band are complementary to LISA as they look for a rather different kind of gravitational wave sources.

10. International committees that have reviewed the experiment.

LISA has been chosen by ESA's SPC has a cornerstone mission in fundamental physics. Has been confirmed in this status by many external and internal reviews. LISA has been endorsed by a series of panels of the NSF and NASA in the USA.