Design and performance characterization of a new LISA-like (laser interferometer space antenna-like) gravitational reference sensor and torsion pendulum testbed

Stephen Apple; Anthony Dávila Álvarez; Samantha Parry Kenyon; Andrew Chilton; Derek Klein; Brandon Bickerstaff; Simon Barke; Myles Clark; Benjamin Letson; Taiwo Olatunde; Jose Sanjuan; Orion Sauter; John Siu; Timothy J Sumner; Guido Mueller; Peter J Wass; John W Conklin

doi:10.1063/5.0135125

Design and performance characterization of a new LISA-like (laser interferometer space antenna-like) gravitational reference sensor and torsion pendulum testbed

Rev Sci Instrum. 2023 May 1;94(5):054502. doi: 10.1063/5.0135125.

Authors

Stephen Apple¹, Anthony Dávila Álvarez¹, Samantha Parry Kenyon¹, Andrew Chilton¹, Derek Klein¹, Brandon Bickerstaff¹, Simon Barke¹, Myles Clark¹, Benjamin Letson¹, Taiwo Olatunde¹, Jose Sanjuan¹, Orion Sauter¹, John Siu¹, Timothy J Sumner^{1

2}, Guido Mueller¹, Peter J Wass¹, John W Conklin¹

Affiliations

¹ University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
² Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.

PMID: 37222578
DOI: 10.1063/5.0135125

Abstract

In this paper, we present the design and performance of the upgraded University of Florida torsion pendulum facility for testing inertial sensor technology related to space-based gravitational wave observatories and geodesy missions. In particular, much work has been conducted on inertial sensor technology related to the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) space gravitational wave observatory mission. A significant upgrade to the facility was the incorporation of a newly designed and fabricated LISA-like gravitational reference sensor (GRS) based on the LISA Pathfinder GRS. Its LISA-like geometry has allowed us to make noise measurements that are more representative of those in LISA and has allowed for the characterization of the mechanisms of noise induced on a LISA GRS and their underlying physics. Noise performance results and experiments exploring the effect of temperature gradients across the sensor will also be discussed. The LISA-like sensor also includes unique UV light injection geometries for UV LED based charge management. Pulsed and DC charge management experiments have been conducted using the University of Florida charge management group's technology readiness level 4 charge management device. These experiments have allowed for the testing of charge management system hardware and techniques as well as characterizations of the dynamics of GRS test mass charging. The work presented here demonstrates the upgraded torsion pendulum's ability to act as an effective testbed for GRS technology.