Talk detail

Participant	Ferroni, Valerio
Institution	University of Trento - Via Sommarive14 - Trento - - Italy

Session	PT6	Accepted	No	Order	Time
Talk	Oral abstract	Title	Measurement and control of electrostatic patch effect on gravitational reference sensor for gravitational waves observation in space. The LISA Pathfinder results
Coauthors	LISA Pathfinder collaboration
Abstract	LISA Pathfinder demonstrated that two free-falling reference test masses can be put in free fall with sub-femto-g relative acceleration noise in the [0.02-30] mHz frequency band, which is what is needed for the space-based gravitational wave observatory LISA. One of the key element of such performance is the control of the disturbances due to the coupling between non-uniform potential distribution on the surfaces of the gravitational reference sensor and the test mass charge. On board, we resolved the stochastic nature of the test mass charge buildup due to interplanetary cosmic rays, and the force to charge coupling due non-uniform distributions of electrostatic potential; employing a combination of charge control and electric-field compensation, we showed that the level of charge-induced acceleration noise on a single test mass can be controlled below 1.0 fm s−2 Hz−1/2.
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