Experimental verification of intersatellite clock synchronization at LISA performance levels

authored by: Kohei Yamamoto, Christoph Vorndamme, Olaf Hartwig, Martin Staab, Thomas S. Schwarze, Gerhard Heinzel
Abstract: The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) aims to observe gravitational waves in the mHz regime over its 10-year mission time. LISA will operate laser interferometers between three spacecrafts. Each spacecraft will utilize independent clocks which determine the sampling times of onboard phasemeters to extract the interferometric phases and, ultimately, gravitational wave signals. To suppress limiting laser frequency noise, signals sampled by each phasemeter need to be combined in postprocessing to synthesize virtual equal-arm interferometers. The synthesis in turn requires a synchronization of the independent clocks. This article reports on the experimental verification of a clock synchronization scheme down to LISA performance levels using a hexagonal optical bench. The development of the scheme includes data processing that is expected to be applicable to the real LISA data with minor modifications. Additionally, some noise coupling mechanisms are discussed.
External Organisation(s): Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
SYRTE - Observatoire de Paris
Type: Article
Journal: Phys. Rev. D
Volume: 105
Publication date: 25.02.2022
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.105.042009 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{02522a7ca8c24f018f17e57866a83190,
title = "Experimental verification of intersatellite clock synchronization at LISA performance levels",
abstract = " The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) aims to observe gravitational waves in the mHz regime over its 10-year mission time. LISA will operate laser interferometers between three spacecrafts. Each spacecraft will utilize independent clocks which determine the sampling times of onboard phasemeters to extract the interferometric phases and, ultimately, gravitational wave signals. To suppress limiting laser frequency noise, signals sampled by each phasemeter need to be combined in postprocessing to synthesize virtual equal-arm interferometers. The synthesis in turn requires a synchronization of the independent clocks. This article reports on the experimental verification of a clock synchronization scheme down to LISA performance levels using a hexagonal optical bench. The development of the scheme includes data processing that is expected to be applicable to the real LISA data with minor modifications. Additionally, some noise coupling mechanisms are discussed. ",
keywords = "astro-ph.IM, physics.ins-det, physics.optics",
author = "Kohei Yamamoto and Christoph Vorndamme and Olaf Hartwig and Martin Staab and Schwarze, {Thomas S.} and Gerhard Heinzel",
note = "Funding information: The authors acknowledge financial support by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with funds from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) according to a decision of the German Federal Parliament (Grants No. 50OQ0601, No. 50OQ1301, No. 50OQ1801), the European Space Agency (ESA) (Grants No. 22331/09/NL/HB, No. 16238/10/NL/HB), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Sonderforschungsbereich 1128 Relativistic Geodesy and Cluster of Excellence “QuantumFrontiers: Light and Matter at the Quantum Frontier: Foundations and Applications in Metrology” (EXC-2123, Project No. 390837967). O. H. acknowledges funding from Centre National d{\textquoteright}Etudes Spatiales.",
year = "2022",
month = feb,
day = "25",
doi = "10.1103/physrevd.105.042009",
language = "English",
volume = "105",
journal = "Phys. Rev. D",
issn = "1550-2368",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics",
number = "4",
}