arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv 1302.2368gr-qc
收藏

LISA-2020:近十年的中尺度空间引力波观测站

LISA-2020: An Intermediate Scale Space Gravitational Wave Observatory for This Decade

S. Buchman, J. A. Lipa, R. L. Byer, D. DeBra, K. Balakrishnan, G. Dufresne Cutler, A. Al-Fauwaz, E. Hultgren, A. K. Al-Jadaan, S. Saraf, S. Tan, S. Al-Thubiti, A. Zoellner

摘要:

在过去的三十年里,一个非常好的科学案例已经为追求引力波(GW)天文学。这引起了全世界的努力,以检测预期来源产生的极弱信号。随着下一轮的升级,地面仪器可能会首次探测到这些来源,一个新的天文学时代将开始,可能最早在2017年。不方便的是,由于地震噪音和基线长度问题,频谱的低频(<10 Hz)部分,预计最有趣的事件,将无法访问。设想空间探测器LISA 1就是为了填补这一空白,将观测能力扩大到约10-4赫兹。由于任务成本的增长和严重的预算限制,在2030年之前进行飞行现在看来是不太可能的。本文探讨了一个规模缩小的任务,是可比的成本和持续时间的中等规模的天体物理学任务,如1978年($630M) Einstein (HEAO 2) x-ray Observatory2, the 1989 ($ 680 M)COBE宇宙背景探测器3,和1999年(4.2亿美元)FUSE远紫外光谱探测器4的情况。我们发现,这一类的任务是可能的,如果测量要求有所放松,并使用小于LISA的基线。看来这样的任务可能会在2020年之前使用传统的项目开发计划,可能包括国际合作。它将使这一改变游戏规则的天体物理学领域的及时发展成为可能,通过观测大质量黑洞碰撞来补充预期的地面结果。它还将成为LISA的垫脚石,大大降低该任务的风险。

英文摘要:

Over the last three decades, an exceptionally good science case has been made for pursuing gravitational wave (GW) astronomy. This has engendered a worldwide effort to detect the extremely weak signals generated by expected sources. With the next round of upgrades the ground based instruments are likely to make the first detections of the sources, and a new era of astronomy will begin, possibly as early as 2017. Inconveniently, due to seismic noise and baseline length issues, the low frequency (<10Hz) part of the spectrum, where the most interesting events are expected, will not be accessible. The space-based detector, LISA1, was conceived to fill this gap extending the observational capability to about 10-4 Hz. Due to mission cost growth and severe budget constraints, a flight prior to 2030 now seems very unlikely. This paper examines the case for a scaled down mission that is comparable in cost and duration to medium scale astrophysics missions such as the 1978 ($630M) Einstein (HEAO 2) x-ray Observatory2, the 1989 ($680M) COBE Cosmic Background Explorer3, and the 1999 ($420M) FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer4. We find that a mission of this class is possible if the measurement requirements are somewhat relaxed and a baseline smaller than LISA is used. It appears that such a mission could be launched by 2020 using a conventional program development plan, possibly including international collaboration. It would enable the timely development of this game-changing field of astrophysics, complementing the expected ground results with observations of massive black hole collisions. It would also serve as a stepping stone to LISA, greatly reducing the risk profile of that mission.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

↑