Gravitational Wave Detectors in Space: LISA, ASTROD and Later Missions
* SPEAKERS
Name
Affiliation
E-mail
Wei-Tou Ni
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
sungwon(at)ewha.ac.kr
* HOST(Applicant)
Name
Affiliation
E-mail
-
* DATE / TIME
2006-03-18, 4:00p.m.
* PLACE
APCTP Seoul Branch Office
* ABSTRACT
One of the biggest challenges for the gravitational community is the detection of gravitational waves, physical entities predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Of all the known waves and particles in physics, gravitational waves interact with matters the least, carrying unperturbed information from very early epochs of our universe. Ground based gravitational wave detectors are more sensitive to high frequency gravitational waves (1 – 10 kHz), but their sensitivity is very limited at lower frequencies due to seismic noise. Low frequency gravitational waves, between 100 nHz - 1 Hz, are more accessible to experiments designed in space. The ESA/NASA Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission is to be the first space-borne laser interferometer to perform Gravitational Wave Astronomy. LISA consists of a fleet of 3 spacecraft 20º behind earth in solar orbit keeping a triangular configuration of nearly equal sides (5 × 106 km). Mapping the space-time outside super-massive black holes by measuring the capture of compact objects set the LISA requirement sensitivity between 10-2-10-3 Hz. To measure the properties of massive black hole binaries also requires good sensitivity down at least to 10-4 Hz. Missions after LISA will benefit for its technological developments and will face new challenges to achieve further experimental improvements. Planned to follow on after LISA are ASTROD (Astrodynamical Space Test of Relativity using Optical Devices) and BBO (Big Bang Observer). These missions are designed to be the next generation of space experiments of fundamental physics. Highly accurate deep space navigation, interplanetary laser communication, interferometry and metrology, high precision frequency standards, precise pointing and attitude control, together with drag-free technologies are the fundamental technological core of these missions. Over the next decade the gravitational physics community will benefit from dramatic improvements in these technologies critical to the tests of gravity and gravitational-wave detection. This talk will concentrate on LISA as a main example and address to the questions of scientific goals and technology development.
