Experimental Demonstration of Time-Delay Interferometry for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first experimental validation of time-delay interferometry (TDI) for LISA, effectively suppressing laser frequency and clock phase noise in a laboratory setting to validate the measurement scheme.

Contribution

It provides the first laboratory demonstration of TDI for LISA, confirming its effectiveness in noise suppression for space-based gravitational wave detection.

Findings

Laser frequency noise suppressed by ~10^9

Clock phase noise reduced by 6x10^4

Recovered the intrinsic displacement noise floor

Abstract

We report on the first demonstration of time-delay interferometry (TDI) for LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. TDI was implemented in a laboratory experiment designed to mimic the noise couplings that will occur in LISA. TDI suppressed laser frequency noise by approximately 10^9 and clock phase noise by 6x10^4, recovering the intrinsic displacement noise floor of our laboratory test bed. This removal of laser frequency noise and clock phase noise in post-processing marks the first experimental validation of the LISA measurement scheme.