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Unveiling the Millihertz Gravitational Wave Sky The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna: Unveiling the Millihertz Gravitational Wave Sky An Astro2020 White Paper lisa.nasa.gov John Baker NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Jeff Livas NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Jillian Bellovary CUNY-Queensborogh Community College Sridhar Manthripragada NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Peter L. Bender University of Colorado Kirk McKenzie NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Emanuele Berti Johns Hopkins University Sean T. McWilliams West Virginia University Robert Caldwell Dartmouth College Guido Mueller University of Florida Jordan Camp NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Priyamvada Natarajan Yale University John W. Conklin University of Florida Kenji Numata NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Neil Cornish Montana State University Norman Rioux NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Curt Cutler NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Shannon R. Sankar University of Maryland, College Park Ryan DeRosa NASA Jet Propulsaion Laboratory Jeremy Schnittman NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Michael Eracleous The Pennsylvania State University David Shoemaker Massachusetts Institute of Technology Elizabeth C. Ferrara University of Maryland, College Park Deirdre Shoemaker Georgia Institute of Technology Samuel Francis NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jacob Slutsky NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Martin Hewitson Albert Einstein Institute Hannover Robert Spero NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Kelly Holley-Bockelmann Vanderbilt University Robin Stebbins JILA / University of Colorado Ann Hornschemeier NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Ira Thorpe NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Craig Hogan University of Chicago / Fermilab Michele Vallisneri NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Brittany Kamai CalTech, Vanderbilt University Brent Ware NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Bernard J. Kelly University of Maryland Baltimore County Peter Wass University of Florida Joey Shapiro Key University of Washington Bothell Anthony Yu NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Shane L. Larson Northwestern University John Ziemer NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory The LISA concept is a product of decades of work by an interna9onal team of scien9sts and engineers. This document was prepared by representa9ves of the US LISA community on behalf of the global community and in support of the ESA-led LISA mission. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna An Astro2020 APC Whitepaper 1 Executive Summary Box 1 - LISA Mission Overview The first terrestrial Gravitational Wave Science Objective: All-sky survey of (GW) interferometers [1, 2] have dramat- millihertz gravitational waves ically underscored the scientific value of observing the Universe through an en- Measurement Concept: Long- tirely different window – and of folding baseline optical interferometry this new channel of information with tradi- between drag-free test masses tional astronomical data for a multimessen- Orbit: Heliocentric 2.5 Mkm triangu- ger view [3, 4, 5, 6]. The Laser Interferom- lar constellation, 20◦ Earth-trailing eter Space Antenna (LISA) will broaden Launch: Early/mid 2030s, Ariane 6.4 the reach of GW astronomy by conducting the first survey of the millihertz GW sky, Lifetime: 1.5 yr transfer, 1 yr com- detecting tens of thousands of individual missioning, 4 yrs science, ≤ 6 yrs astrophysical sources ranging from white- extension dwarf binaries in our own galaxy to merg- Cost: > ers of massive black holes (MBHs) at red- Total mission: Large ( $1.5B); shifts extending beyond the epoch of reion- US share: Medium ($500M - $1.5B) ization. These observations will inform Partners: European Space Agency – and transform – our understanding of (lead), ESA Member States, NASA the end state of stellar evolution, MBH birth, and the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes through cosmic time. LISA also has the potential to detect GW emission Laser Ranging Instrument on board the from elusive astrophysical sources such as US/German Gravity Recovery And Cli- intermediate-mass black holes as well as ex- mate Explorer Follow-On mission (2018-). otic cosmological sources such as inflation- The Midterm Assessment of the 2010 ary fields and cosmic string cusps1. Decadal Survey recommended that the US LISA is now in Phase A as a European participate as a “strong technical and sci- Space Agency (ESA) led mission with sig- entific partner” in an ESA-led LISA mis- nificant contributions anticipated from sev- sion [8]. NASA is currently supporting pre- eral ESA member states and NASA. The project activities to support a range of po- mission concept retains all essential fea- tential contributions to LISA including in- tures of the NASA/ESA LISA mission that struments, spacecraft elements, and science was ranked as the 3rd priority for Large- analysis. The currently envisioned scale class missions in the 2010 Decadal Sur- of these contributions is at the lower end vey [7], including the full three-arm trian- of the medium-scale cost range identified gular configuration that measures GW po- by Astro2020 ($500M - $1.5B). A recom- larization and improves robustness. Since mendation for an upscope in US partic- that ranking, LISA’s technical readiness ipation in LISA would provide opportu- has been greatly advanced through two nities to more fully exploit heritage from flight demonstrations: the ESA-led LISA prior US investments, balance technical Pathfinder mission (2015-2017) and the and programmatic risks across the partner- ship, and expand opportunities for future 1LISA Astro2020 Science whitepapers available US leadership in this new field of astron- at: lisa.nasa.gov/documentsCWP.html omy. 1 The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna An Astro2020 APC Whitepaper 2 Key Science Goals and Objectives Box 2 - LISA Science Objectives The scientific case for GW observations in the millihertz band is well-summarized in SO 1: Study the formation & evo- The Gravitational Universe [9], the document lution of compact binary stars in the which formed the basis for ESA’s selection Milky Way of GW astronomy as the science theme for SO 2: Trace the origin, growth & the 3rd Large-class mission of the Cosmic merger history of MBHs Vision Programme in 2013. While some SO 3: Probe the dynamics of dense elements of the LISA science case overlap nuclear clusters using EMRIs with those for GW observations in other bands [10], notably higher-frequency obser- SO 4: Understand the astrophysics of vations with terrestrial interferometers and stellar origin black holes lower-frequency observations with Pulsar SO 5: Explore the fundamental na- Timing Arrays, a space-based facility such ture of gravity & black holes as LISA is uniquely capable of answering a number of pressing and fundamental ques- SO 6: Probe the rate of expansion of tions in astrophysics. the Universe The LISA Science Objectives are formally SO 7: Understand stochastic GW documented in the Science Requirements backgrounds & their implications for Document (SciRD) [11]. The SciRD iden- the early Universe and TeV-scale par- tifies eight LISA Science Objectives (SOs, ticle physics see Box 2) – broad questions in astrophysics which can be addressed through GW as- SO 8: Search for GW bursts and un- tronomy. The SOs are used to derive mis- foreseen sources sion and instrument requirements includ- ing requirements on the sensitivity of LISA trace), which will be discussed in more de- to GW strain as well as other factors includ- tail in Section 3. The representative sources ing total observing time and data latency in Figure 1 are, in order of typical distance (for certain classes of EM counterpart inves- from nearest to most distant. tigations). The broad range of scientific targets is Compact Binaries in the Milky Way made possible by the abundance and diver- LISA will be sensitive to millions of binary sity of astrophysical sources expected for systems of compact objects (white dwarfs, LISA. Figure 1 shows a comparison of sev- neutron stars, or black holes). Tens of thou- eral representative LISA sources with the sands will be individually resolved with sensitivity limit of the instrument. Data are measured masses, orbital parameters, and plotted as spectral amplitudes of GW strain 3D locations [14, 15] (blue dots in Figure – a dimensionless number characterizing 1). The remaining systems contribute to the amplitude of the spacetime stretching an unresolved foreground (grey shaded re- caused by GWs passing through the detec- gion) which limits sensitivity to other GW tor. The ‘characteristic strain’ is used to ac- sources (black dashed line). Several “verifi- count for variations in observation time be- cation binaries” are already known through tween transient and persistent signals [12]. EM observations [16], providing guaran- Sensitivity to astrophysical sources is pri- teed multimessenger sources (large blue as- marily limited by instrument noise (green terisks). LISA observations will provide in- 2 The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna An Astro2020 APC Whitepaper Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs) A unique class of signal in the millihertz band is the capture of black holes or neutron stars by MBHs in the local Uni- verse (z ≤ 2). The large difference in mass between the two objects results in a highly complex orbit with multiple fre- quency components simultaneously evolv- ing (five reddish traces representing a sin- gle EMRI at z=1.2). LISA will observe tens to hundreds of these EMRI events, yield- ing one of the most precise possible tests Figure 1: Representative examples of LISA of General Relativity in the strong-field sources compared with the instrument sen- regime and also providing unique insight
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