LISA News from ESA O. Jennrich LISA Project Scientist

2 e LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron LISA ESA  ESA will issue a Announcement of Opportunity for missions in the time frame of (in early June)  LISA and Solar Orbiter fall into this window  Advisory structure considers LISA and Solar Orbiter as approved part of the programme.  Earlier SSAC recommendations (at least once re-confirmed): – Development for existing mission must go on – Prioritisation between LISA and Solar Orbiter will take place in 2008 – Solar Orbiter required to stay within 200 M€ budget frame, recommended for international collaboration  LISA critically depends on LISA PF – No implementation without LPF results  Launch date 2015 (earliest)

3 e LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron LISA NASA  US Budget for 2007 and operational plan for 2006 include drastic cuts in the budget for 2006 to 2008 – Immediate reduction of the US team – Concentration on core activities: –Thermal & mechanical modelling (GSFC) –Phasemeter development (JPL)  Mid-term planning in the US has a ‘shoot-out’ in the time frame 2008/2009 between LISA, Con-X and JDEM.  Until then, development work goes on and is funded  Implementation is postponed until after the decision – Decision will not mean cancellation, but only prioritisation (again!)

4 e LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron LISA Mission Formulation  LISA MF Mid-Term review on 24/25 April – Astrium presented baseline architecture – Some key features: –Proof mass out of plane –Cavity laser stabilization –Data transfer every two days, rotating schedule, Inter-satellite communication –Atlas V launcher – MF closeout by July – Derivation of requirements commences (formally) after July.  MF comes to an end (nominally) January 2007 – Some extension possible - TBD  Technology development in some areas will start 2006, lasting for two years (i.e. 2008) – Optical Bench, Telescope, Mechanisms – Laser to follow later

5 e LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron LISA Data Analysis  LISA is the first gravitational wave detector ever flown  Very little experience in data analysis for LISA – Experience with ground based detector might help, but LISA is signal dominated rather than noise dominated – Challenges: Separating the sources, parameter estimation, removal of strong sources, … – Retrievable scientific content depends on the ability to model the sources correctly – efforts in numerical relativity are needed to maximise the scientific return  LPF heritage will help in the commissioning and operations – Many instrument noise sources are similar – Extensive heritage in instrument simulators, commissioning procedures and operational concepts expected – LPF has no science data analysis relevant for LISA  LISA Data Analysis is akin to technology development

6 e LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron History  Scientific community authored a document listing open problems and proposed activities in LISA DA (September 05)  ESA invited the interested groups to comment on this document  Draft data analysis plan issued (November 05)  Groups were asked to commit to work packages as described in the plan – Development of algorithms for parameter extraction – Development of source and signal simulators – Investigating different potential architectures (distributed vs cluster) – Early warning systems – …  Data analysis plan issued (latest issue: March 06) – Most of the work packages covered – Coordination in some areas not yet optimised – Research groups are working, first “deliverables” are available

7 e LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron DAST and MLDC  ESA has set up a Data Analysis Steering Team (DAST) – Consists of coordinators for the national efforts – Charged with maintaining and executing the data analysis plan – Coordinate European efforts with the US efforts  Mock LISA Data Challenge – Initiative of the LIST, inspired by similar challenges in the data analysis for the ground based detectors. Task force created to organize the challenges – DAST decided to use the MLDC to support the implementation of the plan and to focus the work of the community – “Team Europe” is formed to participate in the MLDC – First challenge to be issued in June with follow on challenges issued every 6 months  Participation and feedback of the community is vital

8 e LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron Current status  Community as responded with enthusiasm to the LISA DA – More than 50 groups involved – More than 70 FTE “committed” tor the present LISA DA activities – Many groups from outside the GW community responded (HEP, Astronomy)  ESA funds some support for the coordination of all these activities through consultancy contracts (<200 k€ year)  All the scientific work is presently done on national funding – Many of the committed FTE are subject to funding – Activities in many of the areas are limited by the available man-power – Future activities require significantly more resources in man-power and infrastructure  Gaia as a potential rôle-model?

9 e LISA Journées LISA France, 15/16 Mai 2006, Meuron Current status  LISA DA effort is seen as a “formulation activity” to support the MF phase. – Will come to an end by 2008 (TBD) – Data Analysis report to be published  Further activities (2008 and beyond) – Implementation of a data analysis pipeline – Implementation of “science simulator” – …  Not in the current scope of activities, technology development approach questionable