Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yamamoto, Kohei, Tomio, Hannah, Zehnder, Charlotte, Numata, Kenji, Leopardi, Holly
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07679
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910223941238784
author Yamamoto, Kohei
Tomio, Hannah
Zehnder, Charlotte
Numata, Kenji
Leopardi, Holly
author_facet Yamamoto, Kohei
Tomio, Hannah
Zehnder, Charlotte
Numata, Kenji
Leopardi, Holly
contents Spaceborne gravitational wave observatories, exemplified by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, are designed to remove laser noise and clock noise from interferometric phase measurements in postprocessing. The planned observatories will utilize electro-optic modulators (EOMs) to encode the onboard clock timing onto the beam phase. Recent research has demonstrated the advantage of introducing an optical frequency comb (OFC) in the metrology system with the modified framework of time-delay interferometry (TDI): the removal of the EOM and the simultaneous suppression of the stochastic jitter of the laser and the clock in the observation band. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach with the OFC-based metrology system. We report that after proper treatment, it is possible to use the measured carrier-carrier heterodyne frequencies to monitor the time derivative of the pseudoranges, which represent the physical light travel time and the clock difference. This approach does not require changing the existing TDI framework, as previous OFC based efforts did. Furthermore, this approach naturally captures not only stochastic jitter but also clock offsets and slow drifts. We also present the experimental demonstration of our scheme using two separate systems to model two spacecraft. Using this novel approach, we synchronize the two independent phase measurement systems with an accuracy better than 0.47 ns, while the stochastic jitter in the observation band is suppressed down to the setup sensitivity around the LISA performance levels at 15 pm/sqrt(Hz).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_07679
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Alternative approach to time-delay interferometry with optical frequency comb
Yamamoto, Kohei
Tomio, Hannah
Zehnder, Charlotte
Numata, Kenji
Leopardi, Holly
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Spaceborne gravitational wave observatories, exemplified by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, are designed to remove laser noise and clock noise from interferometric phase measurements in postprocessing. The planned observatories will utilize electro-optic modulators (EOMs) to encode the onboard clock timing onto the beam phase. Recent research has demonstrated the advantage of introducing an optical frequency comb (OFC) in the metrology system with the modified framework of time-delay interferometry (TDI): the removal of the EOM and the simultaneous suppression of the stochastic jitter of the laser and the clock in the observation band. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach with the OFC-based metrology system. We report that after proper treatment, it is possible to use the measured carrier-carrier heterodyne frequencies to monitor the time derivative of the pseudoranges, which represent the physical light travel time and the clock difference. This approach does not require changing the existing TDI framework, as previous OFC based efforts did. Furthermore, this approach naturally captures not only stochastic jitter but also clock offsets and slow drifts. We also present the experimental demonstration of our scheme using two separate systems to model two spacecraft. Using this novel approach, we synchronize the two independent phase measurement systems with an accuracy better than 0.47 ns, while the stochastic jitter in the observation band is suppressed down to the setup sensitivity around the LISA performance levels at 15 pm/sqrt(Hz).
title Alternative approach to time-delay interferometry with optical frequency comb
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07679