Jena 2013 – scientific programme

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 2: Astrophysik / ISWI

EP 2.1: Talk

Monday, February 25, 2013, 16:30–16:45, HS 9

The LISA Mission: A Window on the Dark Universe — •Simon Barke, Gerhard Heinzel, and Karsten Danzmann — Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut) Hannover

To understand the Universe astronomers rely almost completely on electromagnetic radiation. Unfortunately many exciting objects do not emit any light at all. But according to Einstein's general relativity, all accelerated masses produce gravitational waves - perturbations of spacetime propagating at the speed of light. The detection of these gravitational waves will provide astronomers with an entirely new sense.

The planned LISA mission will be the first gravitational wave detector in space and hence not limited by seismic noise like its ground-based counterparts. With LISA's unprecedented sensitivity at very low frequencies it will be able to trace the formation, growth, and merger history of massive black holes throughout the Universe as well as survey compact stellar-mass binaries, and study the structure of our own Galaxy.

LISA is under intensive study for more than a decade. This talk will give an overview of the mission design, its current status, and present new developments due to the programmatic situation at NASA and ESA.