Beyond the required LISA free fall performance: New LISA Pathfinder results down to 20μHz
Publication date: 05 February 2018
Authors: M. Armano et al.
Journal: Physical Review Letters
Volume: 120
Issue: 6
Page: 061101
Year: 2018
Copyright: See below
In the months since the publication of the first results, the noise performance of LISA Pathfinder has improved because of reduced Brownian noise due to the continued decrease in pressure around the test masses, from a better correction of noninertial effects, and from a better calibration of the electrostatic force actuation. In addition, the availability of numerous long noise measurement runs, during which no perturbation is purposely applied to the test masses, has allowed the measurement of noise with good statistics down to 20 μHz. The Letter presents the measured differential acceleration noise figure, which is at (1.74±0.01) fm s-2/√Hz above 2 mHz and (6±1)×10 fm s-2/√Hz at 20 μHz, and discusses the physical sources for the measured noise. This performance provides an experimental benchmark demonstrating the ability to realize the low-frequency science potential of the LISA mission, recently selected by the European Space Agency.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.061101
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
