LISA telescope sensitivity analysis

Walushka, Eugène [NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (USA)] Papalexandris, Miltiadis [UCL]

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) for the detection of Gravitational Waves is a very long baseline interferometer which will measure the changes in the distance of a five million kilometer arm to picometer accuracies. As with any optical system, even one with such very large separations between the transmitting and receiving telescopes, a sensitivity analysis has to be performed to see how, in this case, the far field phase varies when the telescope parameters change as a result of structural stress relief or temperature changes. The results of the sensitivity analysis are presented.