Gravitational Wave Measurement in the Mid-Band with Atom Interferometers

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Hauptverfasser: Baum, Sebastian, Bogorad, Zachary, Graham, Peter W.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Baum, Sebastian
Bogorad, Zachary
Graham, Peter W.
author_facet Baum, Sebastian
Bogorad, Zachary
Graham, Peter W.
contents Gravitational Waves (GWs) have been detected in the $\sim$100 Hz and nHz bands, but most of the gravitational spectrum remains unobserved. A variety of detector concepts have been proposed to expand the range of observable frequencies. In this work, we study the capability of GW detectors in the ``mid-band'', the $\sim$30 mHz -- 10 Hz range between LISA and LIGO, to measure the signals from and constrain the properties of ${\sim}$1 -- 100 $M_\odot$ compact binaries. We focus on atom-interferometer-based detectors. We describe a Fisher matrix code, AIMforGW, which we created to evaluate their capabilities, and present numerical results for two benchmarks: terrestrial km-scale detectors, and satellite-borne detectors in medium Earth orbit. Mid-band GW detectors are particularly well-suited to pinpointing the location of GW sources on the sky. We demonstrate that a satellite-borne detector could achieve sub-degree sky localization for any detectable source with chirp mass $\mathcal{M}_c \lesssim 50 M_\odot$. We also compare different detector configurations, including different locations of terrestrial detectors and various choices of the orbit of a satellite-borne detector. As we show, a network of only two terrestrial single-baseline detectors or one single-baseline satellite-borne detector would each provide close-to-uniform sky-coverage, with signal-to-noise ratios varying by less than a factor of two across the entire sky. We hope that this work contributes to the efforts of the GW community to assess the merits of different detector proposals.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_07952
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gravitational Wave Measurement in the Mid-Band with Atom Interferometers
Baum, Sebastian
Bogorad, Zachary
Graham, Peter W.
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Atomic Physics
Gravitational Waves (GWs) have been detected in the $\sim$100 Hz and nHz bands, but most of the gravitational spectrum remains unobserved. A variety of detector concepts have been proposed to expand the range of observable frequencies. In this work, we study the capability of GW detectors in the ``mid-band'', the $\sim$30 mHz -- 10 Hz range between LISA and LIGO, to measure the signals from and constrain the properties of ${\sim}$1 -- 100 $M_\odot$ compact binaries. We focus on atom-interferometer-based detectors. We describe a Fisher matrix code, AIMforGW, which we created to evaluate their capabilities, and present numerical results for two benchmarks: terrestrial km-scale detectors, and satellite-borne detectors in medium Earth orbit. Mid-band GW detectors are particularly well-suited to pinpointing the location of GW sources on the sky. We demonstrate that a satellite-borne detector could achieve sub-degree sky localization for any detectable source with chirp mass $\mathcal{M}_c \lesssim 50 M_\odot$. We also compare different detector configurations, including different locations of terrestrial detectors and various choices of the orbit of a satellite-borne detector. As we show, a network of only two terrestrial single-baseline detectors or one single-baseline satellite-borne detector would each provide close-to-uniform sky-coverage, with signal-to-noise ratios varying by less than a factor of two across the entire sky. We hope that this work contributes to the efforts of the GW community to assess the merits of different detector proposals.
title Gravitational Wave Measurement in the Mid-Band with Atom Interferometers
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Atomic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.07952