Cosmology with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (original) (raw)
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The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna: Unveiling the Millihertz Gravitational Wave Sky
arXiv: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, 2019
The first terrestrial gravitational wave interferometers have dramatically underscored the scientific value of observing the Universe through an entirely different window, and of folding this new channel of information with traditional astronomical data for a multimessenger view. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will broaden the reach of gravitational wave astronomy by conducting the first survey of the millihertz gravitational wave sky, detecting tens of thousands of individual astrophysical sources ranging from white-dwarf binaries in our own galaxy to mergers of massive black holes at redshifts extending beyond the epoch of reionization. These observations will inform - and transform - our understanding of the end state of stellar evolution, massive black hole birth, and the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes through cosmic time. LISA also has the potential to detect gravitational wave emission from elusive astrophysical sources such as intermediate-mass black ...
Beyond LISA: Exploring future gravitational wave missions
Physical Review D, 2005
The Advanced Laser Interferometer Antenna (ALIA) and the Big Bang Observer (BBO) have been proposed as follow on missions to the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Here we study the capabilities of these observatories, and how they relate to the science goals of the missions. We find that the Advanced Laser Interferometer Antenna in Stereo (ALIAS), our proposed extension to the ALIA mission, will go considerably further toward meeting ALIA's main scientific goal of studying intermediate mass black holes. We also compare the capabilities of LISA to a related extension of the LISA mission, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna in Stereo (LISAS). Additionally, we find that the initial deployment phase of the BBO would be sufficient to address the BBO's key scientific goal of detecting the Gravitational Wave Background, while still providing detailed information about foreground sources.
The last century has seen enormous progress in our understanding of the Universe. We know the life cycles of stars, the structure of galaxies, the remnants of the big bang, and have a general understanding of how the Universe evolved. We have come remarkably far using electromagnetic radiation as our tool for observing the Universe. However, gravity is the engine behind many of the processes in the Universe, and much of its action is dark. Opening a gravitational window on the Universe will let us go further than any alternative. Gravity has its own messenger: Gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime. They travel essentially undisturbed and let us peer deep into the formation of the first seed black holes, exploring redshifts as large as z ~ 20, prior to the epoch of cosmic re-ionisation. Exquisite and unprecedented measurements of black hole masses and spins will make it possible to trace the history of black holes across all stages of galaxy evolution, and at the sa...
Listening to the universe with gravitational-wave astronomy
Annals of Physics, 2003
The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detectors have just completed their first science run, following many years of planning, research, and development. LIGO is a member of what will be a worldwide network of gravitational-wave observatories, with other members in Europe, Japan, andhopefully -Australia. Plans are rapidly maturing for a low frequency, space-based gravitational-wave observatory: LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, to be launched around 2011. The goal of these instruments is to inaugurate the field of gravitational-wave astronomy: using gravitational-waves as a means of listening to highly relativistic dynamical processes in astrophysics. This review discusses the promise of this field, outlining why gravitational waves are worth pursuing, and what they are uniquely suited to teach us about astrophysical phenomena. We review the current state of the field, both theoretical and experimental, and then highlight some aspects of gravitational-wave science that are particularly exciting (at least to this author).
Possible Strong Gravitational Wave Sources for the LISA Antenna
The Astrophysical Journal, 2001
Recently Fuller & Shi proposed that the gravitational collapse of supermassive objects (M 10 4 M ⊙ ) could be a cosmological source of γ-ray bursts (GRBs). The major advantage of their model is that supermassive object collapses are far more energetic than solar mass-scale compact mergers. Also, in their proposal the seeds of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) thus formed could give rise to the SMBHs observed at the center of many galaxies. We argue here that, besides the generation of GRBs, there could well occur a strong generation of gravitational waves (GWs) during the formation of SMBHs. As a result, the rate of such GW bursts could be as high as the rate of GRBs in the model by Fuller & Shi. In this case, the detection of GRBs and bursts of GWs should occur with a small time difference. We also argue that the GWs produced by the SMBHs studied here could be detected when the Laser Interferometric Space Antenna (LISA) becomes operative.
Physical Review D, 2022
We investigate the ability of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) to detect a stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB) produced by cosmic strings, and to subsequently estimate the string tension Gµ in the presence of instrument noise, an astrophysical background from compact binaries, and the galactic foreground from white dwarf binaries. Fisher Information and Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods provide estimates of the LISA noise and the parameters for the different signal sources. We demonstrate the ability of LISA to simultaneously estimate the galactic foreground, as well as the astrophysical and cosmic string produced backgrounds. Considering the expected astrophysical background and a galactic foreground, a cosmic string tension in the Gµ ≈ 10 −16 to Gµ ≈ 10 −15 range or bigger could be measured by LISA, with the galactic foreground affecting this limit more than the astrophysical background. The parameter estimation methods presented here can be applied to other cosmological backgrounds in the LISA observation band.
Characterizing the galactic gravitational wave background with LISA
Physical Review D, 2006
We present a Monte Carlo simulation for the response of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) to the galactic gravitational wave background. The simulated data streams are used to estimate the number and type of binary systems that will be individually resolved in a 1-year power spectrum. We find that the background is highly non-Gaussian due to the presence of individual bright sources, but once these sources are identified and removed, the remaining signal is Gaussian. We also present a new estimate of the confusion noise caused by unresolved sources that improves on earlier estimates.
Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
2022
these various sources, including how these might be encoded in the LISA data stream, and the daunting multi-scale modelling needed to reconstruct the full dynamical history of such sources, from their emergence to the final inspiral phase and merger driven by GW radiation. The review material presented will help foster a critical discussion of the major gaps in our knowledge that need to be filled in the next decade, highlighting where disagreement exists between results, and what should be done next to reach beyond the current state of the art. This brings the discussion to important methodological tasks for the immediate future, from exploiting electromagnetic (EM) observations in the next decade, to improving simulation and semi-analytical techniques employed to build astrophysical models for the sources, and to refurbishing analysis and interpretation techniques for the models, for example by employing machine learning, neural networks and other modern inference strategies. 6 1.2.3 Interacting binaries