Capacitive sensing of test mass motion with nanometer precision over millimeter-wide sensing gaps for space-borne gravitational reference sensors
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We report on the performance of the capacitive gap-sensing system of the Gravitational Reference Sensor on board the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft. From in-flight measurements, the system has demonstrated a performance, down to 1 mHz, that is ranging between 0.7 and 1.8 aF Hz−1/2. That translates into a sensing noise of the test mass motion within 1.2 and 2.4 nm Hz−1/2 in displacement and within 83 and 170 nrad Hz−1/2 in rotation. This matches the performance goals for LISA Pathfinder, and it allows the successful implementation of the gravitational waves observatory LISA. A 1/f tail has been observed for frequencies below 1 mHz, the tail has been investigated in detail with dedicated in-flight measurements, and a model is presented in the paper. A projection of such noise to frequencies below 0.1 mHz shows that an improvement of performance at those frequencies is desirable for the next generation of gravitational reference sensors for space-borne gravitational waves observation.
Date Issued
2017-09-26
Date Acceptance
2017-09-01
Citation
PHYSICAL REVIEW D, 2017, 96 (6)
ISSN
2470-0010
Publisher
American Physical Society
Journal / Book Title
PHYSICAL REVIEW D
Volume
96
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2017 American Physical Society.
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000411769400002&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Physics, Particles & Fields
Physics
FOURIER-TRANSFORM
LISA
MISSION
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 062004