Postprocessing subtraction of tilt-to-length noise in LISA

authored by

S. Paczkowski, R. Giusteri, M. Hewitson, N. Karnesis, E. d. Fitzsimons, G. Wanner, G. Heinzel

Abstract

The coupling of an angular jitter into the interferometric phase readout is summarized under the term tilt-To-length (TTL) coupling. This noise is expected to be a major noise source in the intersatellite interferometry for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) space mission. Despite efforts to reduce it by satellite construction, some remaining TTL noise will need to be removed in postprocessing on Earth. Therefore, such a procedure needs to be developed and validated to ensure the success of the LISA mission. This paper shows a method to calibrate and subtract TTL noise that has no impact on LISA science operations. This solution relies on noise minimization and uses the differential wavefront sensing (DWS) measurements to estimate the TTL contribution. Our technique is applied after the laser frequency noise is suppressed via the time-delay interferometry (TDI) postprocessing algorithm. We use a simulation to show as a proof-of-principle that we can estimate the TTL coefficients to the required accuracy level based on the current design configuration of LISA. We then use these estimates to subtract the TTL noise, ensuring that any remaining TTL noise is below the current estimate of the other noise sources. We validate the procedure on simulated data for different operating scenarios. Our work shows that it is indeed possible to estimate the effect of TTL coupling and subtract it a posteriori from the TDI data streams.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Gravitation Physics
QuantumFrontiers
PhoenixD: Photonics, Optics, and Engineering - Innovation Across Disciplines

External Organisation(s)

Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th.)
Royal Observatory

Type

Article

Journal

Physical Review D

Volume

106

ISSN

2470-0010

Publication date

15.08.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.106.042005 (Access: Open)