On the effectiveness of null TDI channels as instrument noise monitors in LISA

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the use of LISA's null TDI channels for in-flight noise estimation, highlighting their limitations in directly quantifying low-frequency instrumental noise but demonstrating their utility in setting upper bounds to distinguish noise from gravitational waves.

Contribution

The study provides a detailed analysis of null TDI channels' effectiveness and limitations for in-flight noise monitoring in LISA, especially regarding low-frequency noise components.

Findings

Null channel $igeta$ has reduced sensitivity to gravitational waves.

Null channel $igeta$ can set upper bounds on instrumental noise.

Null channel $igeta$ is less effective for direct noise quantification.

Abstract

We present a study of the use and limits of the Time-Delay Interferometry null channels for in flight estimation of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna instrumental noise. The paper considers how the two main limiting noise sources, test-mass acceleration noise and interferometric phase measurement noise, propagate through different Time-Delay Interferometry channels: the Michelson combination X that is the most sensitive to gravitational waves, then the less-sensitive combinations $\alpha$, and finally the null channel $\zeta$. We note that the null channel $\zeta$, which is known to be equivalent to any null channel, not only has a reduced sensitivity to the gravitational waves, but also feature a larger degree of cancellation of the test mass acceleration noise relative to the interferometry noise. This severely limits its use in quantifying the low frequency instrumental noise in the Michelson X combination, which is expected to be dominated by acceleration noise. However, we show that one can still use in-flight noise estimations from $\zeta$ to put an upper bound on the considered noises entering in the X channel, which allows to distinguish them from a strong stochastic gravitational wave background.