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Abstract

The primary scientific results of the future space-based gravitational wave
interferometer LISA will come from the parameter inference of a large variety
of gravitational wave sources. However, the presence of calibration errors
could potentially degrade the measurement precision of the system parameters.
Here, we assess the impact of calibration uncertainties on parameter estimation
for individual sources, focusing on massive black holes, extreme-mass-ratio
inspirals (EMRIs), galactic binaries, and stellar origin black hole binaries.
Using a Fisher matrix formalism, we investigate how the measurement precision
of source parameters degrades as a function of the size of the assumed
calibration uncertainties. If we require that parameter measurements are
degraded by no more than a factor of two relative to their value in the absence
of calibration error, we find that calibration errors should be smaller than a
few tenths of a percent in amplitude and $10^{-3}$ in phase. We also
investigate the possibility of using verification binaries and EMRIs to
constrain calibration uncertainties. Verification binaries can constrain
amplitude calibration uncertainties at the level of a few percent, while both
source types can provide constrain phase calibration at the level of a
few$\times10^{-2}$.