Arm locking for space-based laser interferometry gravitational wave observatories

Abstract: Laser frequency stabilization is a critical part of the interferometry measurement system of space-based gravitational wave observatories such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Arm locking as a proposed frequency stabilization technique, transfers the stability of the long arm lengths to the laser frequency. The arm locking sensor synthesizes an adequately filtered linear combination of the inter-spacecraft phase measurements to estimate the laser frequency noise, which can be used to control the laser frequency. At the University of Florida we developed the hardware-based University of Florida LISA Interferometer Simulator (UFLIS) to study and verify laser frequency noise reduction and suppression techniques under realistic LISA-like conditions. These conditions include the variable Doppler shifts between the spacecraft, LISA-like signal travel times, optical transponders, realistic laser frequency and timing noise. We review the different types of arm locking sensors and discuss their expected performance in LISA. The presented results are supported by results obtained during experimental studies of arm locking under relevant LISA-like conditions. We measured the noise suppression as well as initial transients and frequency pulling in the presence of Doppler frequency errors. This work has demonstrated the validity and \ feasibility of arm locking in LISA.