Perfect porcupines: ideal networks for low frequency gravitational wave astronomy

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of perfect porcupine networks of gravitational wave detectors, optimized for low-frequency astronomy, highlighting configurations that maximize detection capabilities with minimal detectors.

Contribution

It explicitly describes the most important configurations of perfect porcupine networks for one-arm and two-arm detectors, providing ideal arrangements for low-frequency gravitational wave detection.

Findings

Optimal 6-detector configuration for one-arm detectors

Optimal 5-detector configuration for two-arm detectors

Enhanced gravitational wave detection capabilities at low frequencies

Abstract

Perfect porcupines are specially-configured networks of gravitational wave detectors, in the limit that the individual detectors and the distances between them are short relative to the gravitational wavelengths of interest. They have beautiful properties which make them ideal gravitational wave telescopes. I present the most important cases explicitly. For a network of one-arm detectors (like "AGIS" \cite{Dimopoulos_et_al}), the minimal perfect porcupine has 6 detectors, oriented along the 6 diameters of a regular icosahedron. For a network of two-arm detectors (like the equal-arm Michelson interferometers LIGO/VIRGO) the minimal perfect porcupine is a certain 5 detector configuration.