Laser noise residuals in LISA from onboard processing and time-delay interferometry

Staab, M., Lilley, M., Bayle, J.-B. and Hartwig, O. (2024) Laser noise residuals in LISA from onboard processing and time-delay interferometry. Physical Review D, 109(4), 043040. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.043040)

Abstract

Time-delay interferometry (TDI) is a crucial step in the on-ground data processing pipeline of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), as it reduces otherwise overwhelming laser noise and allows for the detection of gravitational waves (GWs). This being said, several laser noise couplings have been identified that limit the performance of TDI. First, on-board processing, which is used to decimate the sampling rate from tens of MHz down to a few Hz, requires careful design of the antialiasing filters to mitigate folding of laser noise power into the observation band. Furthermore, the flatness of those filters is important to limit the effect of the flexing-filtering coupling. Second, the postprocessing delays applied in TDI are subject to ranging and interpolation errors. All of these effects are partially described in the literature. In this paper, we present them in a unified framework and give a more complete description of aliased laser noise and the coupling of interpolation errors. Furthermore, for the first time, we discuss the impact of laser locking on laser noise residuals in the final TDI output. To verify the validity of the analytic power spectral density (PSD) models we derive, we run numerical simulations using LISA Instrument and calculate second-generation TDI variables with PyTDI. We consider a setup with six independent lasers and with locked lasers (locking configuration N1-12). We find that laser locking indeed affects the laser noise residuals in the TDI combinations as it introduces correlations among the six lasers inducing slight modulations of the PSDs compared to the case of six independent lasers. This implies further studies on laser noise residuals should consider the various locking configurations to produce accurate results.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: M.S. and O.H. acknowledge the support of the German Space Agency, DLR. The work is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action based on a decision by the German Bundestag (FKZ 50OQ1801 and FKZ 50OQ2301). This work is also supported by the Max-Planck-Society within the LEGACY (“Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Astronomy in Space”) collaboration (M.IF.A.QOP18098). J.- B. B. gratefully acknowledges support from the UK Space Agency via STFC [ST/W002825/1]. M.L.’s and O.H.’s work was supported by the Programme National GRAM of CNRS/INSU with INP and IN2P3 co-funded by CNES. O.H. and M.L. gratefully acknowledge support from the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Bayle, Dr Jean-Baptiste
• Authors: Staab, M., Lilley, M., Bayle, J.-B., and Hartwig, O.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Physical Review D
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 2470-0010
• ISSN (Online): 2470-0029
• Published Online: 22 February 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Physical Review D 109(4):043040
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence