Known unknowns: assessing the impact of instrumental calibration uncertainty on LISA science

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how calibration uncertainties in the LISA gravitational wave detector affect the accuracy of source parameter estimation, finding that calibration must be precise to preserve measurement quality.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative assessment of calibration error impacts on LISA's parameter inference using Fisher matrix analysis, and explores calibration constraints from specific sources.

Findings

Calibration errors should be below 0.1% in amplitude and 10^{-3} in phase to limit degradation.

Verification binaries can constrain amplitude calibration to a few percent.

EMRIs and verification binaries can help constrain phase calibration to a few times 10^{-2}.

Abstract

The primary scientific results of the future space-based gravitational wave interferometer LISA will come from the parameter inference of a large variety of gravitational wave sources. However, the presence of calibration errors could potentially degrade the measurement precision of the system parameters. Here, we assess the impact of calibration uncertainties on parameter estimation for individual sources, focusing on massive black holes, extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), galactic binaries, and stellar origin black hole binaries. Using a Fisher matrix formalism, we investigate how the measurement precision of source parameters degrades as a function of the size of the assumed calibration uncertainties. If we require that parameter measurements are degraded by no more than a factor of two relative to their value in the absence of calibration error, we find that calibration errors should be smaller than a few tenths of a percent in amplitude and $10^{-3}$ in phase. We also investigate the possibility of using verification binaries and EMRIs to constrain calibration uncertainties. Verification binaries can constrain amplitude calibration uncertainties at the level of a few percent, while both source types can provide constrain phase calibration at the level of a few$\times10^{-2}$.