LISA Pathfinder Performance Confirmed in an Open-Loop Configuration: Results from the Free-Fall Actuation Mode
Abstract
We report on the results of the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) free-fall mode experiment, in which the control force needed to compensate the quasistatic differential force acting on two test masses is applied intermittently as a series of "impulse" forces lasting a few seconds and separated by roughly 350 s periods of true free fall. This represents an alternative to the normal LPF mode of operation in which this balancing force is applied continuously, with the advantage that the acceleration noise during free fall is measured in the absence of the actuation force, thus eliminating associated noise and force calibration errors. The differential acceleration noise measurement presented here with the free-fall mode agrees with noise measured with the continuous actuation scheme, representing an important and independent confirmation of the LPF result. An additional measurement with larger actuation forces also shows that the technique can be used to eliminate actuation noise when this is a dominant factor.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1908.11584,
title = {LISA Pathfinder Performance Confirmed in an Open-Loop Configuration: Results from the Free-Fall Actuation Mode},
author = {M. Armano and H. Audley and J. Baird and P. Binetruy and M. Born and D. Bortoluzzi and E. Castelli and A. Cavalleri and A. Cesarini and A. M. Cruise and K. Danzmann and M. de Deus Silva and I. Diepholz and G. Dixon and R. Dolesi and L. Ferraioli and V. Ferroni and E. D. Fitzsimons and M. Freschi and L. Gesa and F. Gibert and D. Giardini and R. Giusteri and C. Grimani and J. Grzymisch and I. Harrison and M-S. Hartig and G. Heinzel and M. Hewitson and D. Hollington and D. Hoyland and M. Hueller and H. Inchauspé and O. Jennrich and P. Jetzer and N. Karnesis and B. Kaune and N. Korsakova and C. J. Killow and J. A. Lobo and L. Liu and J. P. Llopez-Zaragoza and R. Maarschalkerweerd and D. Mance and N. Meshksar and V. Martìn and L. Martin-Polo and J. Martino and F. Martin-Porqueras and I. Mateos and P. W. McNamara and J. Mendes and L. Mendes and M. Nofrarias and S. Paczkowski and M. Perreur-Lloyd and A. Petiteau and P. Pivato and E. Plagnol and J. Ramos-Castro and J. Reiche and D. I. Robertson and F. Rivas and G. Russano and J. Slutsky and C. F. Sopuerta and T. Sumner and D. Texier and J. I. Thorpe and D. Vetrugno and S. Vitale and G. Wanner and H. Ward and P. J. Wass and W. J. Weber and L. Wissel and A. Wittchen and P. Zweifel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.11584},
year = {2019}
}