Gravitational wave detection by laser interferometry – on earth and in space

The space project LISA is approved by ESA as a cornerstone mission in the field of ‘fundamental physics’, sharing its goal and principle of operation with the ground-based interferometers currently under construction: the detection and measurement of gravitational waves by laser interferometry. Ground and space detection differ in their frequency ranges, and thus the detectable sources. At low frequencies, ground-based detection is limited by seismic noise, and yet more fundamentally by ‘gravity gradient noise’, thus covering the range from a few Hz to a few kHz. On five sites worldwide, detectors of armlengths from 0.3 to 4 km are being built, two of them in Europe (GEO and VIRGO). They will progressively be put in operation between 2001 and 2003. Future improved versions are being planned, with data not until 2008, i.e. near the launch of the space project LISA. It is only in space that detection of signals below, say, 1 Hz is possible, opening a wide window to a different class of interesting sources of gravitational waves. The project LISA consists of three spacecraft in heliocentric orbits, forming a triangle of 5 million km sides.