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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc
Abstract:
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna is a joint ESA-NASA space-mission to
detect and study mHz cosmic gravitational waves. The trajectories followed by
its three spacecraft result in unequal- and time-varying arms, requiring use of
the Time-Delay Interferometry (TDI) post- processing technique to cancel the
laser phase noises affecting the heterodyne one-way Doppler measurements.
Although the second-generation formulation of TDI cancels the laser phase
noises when the array is both rotating and "flexing", second-generation TDI
combinations for which the phase fluctuations of the onboard ultra stable
oscillators (USOs) can be calibrated out have not appeared yet in the
literature. In this article we present the solution of this problem by
generalizing to the realistic LISA trajectory the USO calibration algorithm
derived by Armstrong, Estabrook and Tinto for a static configuration.
