LISA

News from ESA

O. JennrichLISA Project Scientist

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LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron

LISA Programmatics @ ESA ESA will issue a Announcement of Opportunity for missions in

the time frame of 2015-2020 (in early June) LISA and Solar Orbiter fall into this window Advisory structure considers LISA and Solar Orbiter as

approved part of the programme. Earlier SSAC recommendations (at least once re-confirmed):

– Development for existing mission must go on– Prioritisation between LISA and Solar Orbiter will take place in 2008– Solar Orbiter required to stay within 200 M€ budget frame,

recommended for international collaboration LISA critically depends on LISA PF

– No implementation without LPF results Launch date 2015 (earliest)

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LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron

LISA Programmatics @ NASA US Budget for 2007 and operational plan for 2006 include

drastic cuts in the budget for 2006 to 2008– Immediate reduction of the US team– Concentration on core activities:

– Thermal & mechanical modelling (GSFC)

– Phasemeter development (JPL)

Mid-term planning in the US has a ‘shoot-out’ in the time frame 2008/2009 between LISA, Con-X and JDEM.

Until then, development work goes on and is funded Implementation is postponed until after the decision

– Decision will not mean cancellation, but only prioritisation (again!)

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LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron

LISA Mission Formulation LISA MF Mid-Term review on 24/25 April

– Astrium presented baseline architecture– Some key features:

– Proof mass out of plane

– Cavity laser stabilization

– Data transfer every two days, rotating schedule, Inter-satellite communication

– Atlas V launcher

– MF closeout by July– Derivation of requirements commences (formally) after July.

MF comes to an end (nominally) January 2007– Some extension possible - TBD

Technology development in some areas will start 2006,lasting for two years (i.e. 2008)

– Optical Bench, Telescope, Mechanisms– Laser to follow later

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LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron

LISA Data Analysis LISA is the first gravitational wave detector ever flown Very little experience in data analysis for LISA

– Experience with ground based detector might help, but LISA is signal dominated rather than noise dominated

– Challenges: Separating the sources, parameter estimation, removal of strong sources, …

– Retrievable scientific content depends on the ability to model the sources correctly – efforts in numerical relativity are needed to maximise the scientific return

LPF heritage will help in the commissioning and operations– Many instrument noise sources are similar– Extensive heritage in instrument simulators, commissioning procedures

and operational concepts expected– LPF has no science data analysis relevant for LISA

LISA Data Analysis is akin to technology development

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LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron

History Scientific community authored a document listing open problems and

proposed activities in LISA DA (September 05) ESA invited the interested groups to comment on this document Draft data analysis plan issued (November 05) Groups were asked to commit to work packages as described in the

plan– Development of algorithms for parameter extraction– Development of source and signal simulators– Investigating different potential architectures (distributed vs cluster)– Early warning systems– …

Data analysis plan issued (latest issue: March 06)– Most of the work packages covered– Coordination in some areas not yet optimised– Research groups are working, first “deliverables” are available

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LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron

DAST and MLDC ESA has set up a Data Analysis Steering Team (DAST)

– Consists of coordinators for the national efforts– Charged with maintaining and executing the data analysis plan– Coordinate European efforts with the US efforts

Mock LISA Data Challenge– Initiative of the LIST, inspired by similar challenges in the data analysis

for the ground based detectors. Task force created to organize the challenges

– DAST decided to use the MLDC to support the implementation of the plan and to focus the work of the community

– “Team Europe” is formed to participate in the MLDC– First challenge to be issued in June with follow on challenges issued

every 6 months Participation and feedback of the community is vital

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LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron

Current status Community as responded with enthusiasm to the LISA DA

– More than 50 groups involved– More than 70 FTE “committed” tor the present LISA DA activities– Many groups from outside the GW community responded (HEP,

Astronomy) ESA funds some support for the coordination of all these

activities through consultancy contracts (<200 k€ year) All the scientific work is presently done on national funding

– Many of the committed FTE are subject to funding– Activities in many of the areas are limited by the available man-power– Future activities require significantly more resources in man-power and

infrastructure Gaia as a potential rôle-model?

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LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron

Current status LISA DA effort is seen as a “formulation activity” to support the

MF phase.– Will come to an end by 2008 (TBD)– Data Analysis report to be published

Further activities (2008 and beyond)– Implementation of a data analysis pipeline– Implementation of “science simulator”– …

Not in the current scope of activities, technology development approach questionable