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    LISA Discussion Group

    Place: OSMOND 318
    Time: Mondays, 9am - 11am

    The goal of this weekly meeting is to survey, discuss and debate the LISA literature, particularly the "famous" works which are typically cited regarding LISA's capabilities, important computational and data analysis challenges for LISA, and essential astrophysics related to LISA sources.

    FORMAT: Each week we'll choose 1 or 2 papers to review and discuss. Meeting format for discussion of the papers will be roundtable, *without* prepared presentations. Since everyone will have read the paper(s), we'll work our way through the paper section by section. Each person will take a section and kick start the discussion.

    The goal in discussion is summarize the main points of the papers, unveil and flay to death confusing issues and points, and make connections to other interesting tidbits of unique and relevant knowledge that each of us has at our respective fingertips.

    PAPERS: The topical areas will vary from week to week, hopefully alternating among astrophysics, data analysis, and detector papers. Papers will be chosen on a rolling basis using a very sophisticated screening process where Louis, Kelly and I huddle together and say "What do you think about this paper?" Suggestions for topics of explicit interest to participants in this reading group will be gratefully accepted.

    A chronology of our readings can be found below, with links to electronic documents. For an extensive list of LISA literature, visit our local LISA literature survey. For jumping off points to all things LISA, visit our local LISA Resources Page.

    Supplements

    Collection of additional materials used during, alluded to, or produced as a consequence of our discussions in the LISA Reading Group.

    1. 23 Nov 2004 (sll) SNR estimates for cosmologically distant SMBH binaries
      [ Note | PDF ]

    2. 22 Nov 2004 (sll) Doppler shift and FFT phases in ecliptic plane
      [ Note 1 | Note 2 | PDF ]

    3. 17 Nov 2004 (sll) Schwarzschild zoom-whirliness.
      [ Note | PDFs ]

    4. 15 Nov 2004 Example alternative cosmology interpretations [ Note ]
      • A. Blanchard, M. Douspis, M. Rowan-Robinson and S. Sarkar "An Alternative to the cosmological concordance model" A+A 412, 35 (2003)
        [ ADS ]

      • R. Knop et al., "New constraints on \Omega_M..." ApJ 598, 102 (2003)
        [ ADS ]

    5. 10 Nov 2004 Possible second black hole near Sgr A*
      J. P. Maillard, T. Paumard, S. R. Stolovy and F. Rigaut, "The nature of the galactic center source IRS 13 revealed by high spatial resolution in the infrared", A+A 423, 155 (2004)
      [A+A ]

    6. 28 Sept 2004 (sll) LISA threshold sensitivity, transformed into orbital period and distance.
      [ Note | PDF | JPG ]

    Reading Schedule

    Monday, 6 December 2004

    1. Matt Benacquista, "Gravitational radiatino from globular clusters", ApJ, 520, 233 (1999).
      [PDF ]

    One of the few papers to consider the observation of low-frequency gravitatoinal waves from globular clusters and the consequences of having such information at hand. :-)

    Monday, 29 November 2004

    1. Focus on Open Questions.
      [Focus Questions (pdf) ]

    Returning ot our discussion of EMRIs, returning to specific questions debated and outlined at the 1 Nov 2004 meeting.

    Monday, 22 November 2004

    1. Thomas A. Moore and Ronald W. Hellings, "Angular resolution of space-based gravitational wave detectors", Phys. Rev. D, 65, 062001 (2002).
      [PDF ]

    2. Luc Blanchet, Bala Iyer, Clifford Will and Alan Wiseman, "Gravitational waveforms from inspiralling compact binaries to second-post-Newtonian order", Class. Quant. Grav., 13, 575 (1996).
      [PDF ]

    This week we'll look at Moore and Hellings as an introductory paper on LISA data analysis, which will hopefully pave the way for future more intensive papers (like Cutler [1998]). The Blanchet et al. paper is only supplemental, and will be referred to as needed if discussions range into the nature of the Post-Newtonian waveforms used in Moore and Hellings.

    Monday, 15 November 2004

    1. S. Hughes, "Untangling the merger history of massive black holes with LISA", MNRAS, 331, 805 (2002).
      [PDF ]

    Pablo will give a 10 minute blurb on different definitions of "loss cone", then we will divert discussion away from EMRIs for the week, and turn our attention to doing cosmology with SMBH detections in the LISA band. We will return to EMRIs in a week or so, when people have had time to digest, compute and evaluate.

    Monday, 8 November 2004

    1. Focus on Open Questions.
      [Focus Questions (pdf) ]

    Continuing discussion of EMRIs, focusing on specific questions debated and outlined at the 1 Nov 2004 meeting.

    Monday, 1 November 2004

    1. Open Questions regarding: M. Freitag, "Gravitational waves from stars orbiting the Sagittarius A* black hole", Astrophys. J. 583, L21 (2003).
      [PDF | Questions (pdf) ]

    2. J. Gair, L. Barack, T. Creighton, C. Cutler, Shane L. Larson, E. S. Phinney and M. Vallisneri, "Event rate estimates for LISA extreme mass ratio capture sources", Classical and Quantum Gravity, 21, S1595 (2004).
      [PDF]

    Continuing discussion of EMRIs in the LISA band, with a focus on several questions which were posed after reading the Freitag paper.

    Monday, 25 October 2004

    1. J. Gair, L. Barack, T. Creighton, C. Cutler, Shane L. Larson, E. S. Phinney and M. Vallisneri, "Event rate estimates for LISA extreme mass ratio capture sources", Classical and Quantum Gravity, 21, S1595 (2004).
      [PDF]

    2. M. Freitag, "Gravitational waves from stars orbiting the Sagittarius A* black hole", Astrophys. J. 583, L21 (2003).
      [PDF]

    These papers are an introduction to Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs). The event rate papers outlines some of the problems and current thinking about detection strategies for EMRI data analysis with LISA, and the second paper is a short paper by Freitag about model estimates of how many such EMRIs might exists in the LISA band. This Freitag paper is often used as the foundation on which LISA event rate estimates are made.

    Monday, 18 October 2004

    1. P. Bender and D. Hils, "Confusion Noise Level due to Galactic and Extragalactic Binaries", Class. Quant. Grav., 14, 1439 (1997).
      [PDF]

    2. G. Nelemans, L. Yungelson and S. Portegies Swart, "The Gravitational Wave Signal from the Galactic Disk Population of Binaries Containing Two Compact Objects", Astron. Astroph., 375, 890 (2001).
      [PDF]

    This week's readings will cover the galactic confusion foreground in the LISA band, which depending on your viewpoint is a fabulous source of information about the galaxy or a source of noise obsructing other G-wave source. These papers will briefly cover the classic estimate of the confusion foreground, as well as a modern population-synthesis estimate of the same foreground.

    Monday, 11 October 2004

    1. S. Faber et al., "The centers of early type galaxies with HST IV: central parameter relations", Astron. J., 114, 177 (1997).
      [PDF]

    2. K. Gebhardt et al., "A relationship between nuclear black hole mass and galaxy velocity dispersion", Ap. J. Letters, 539, L13 (2000).
      [PDF]

    In our continuing effort to bridge knowledge and vocabulary, we'll head back to astrophysics this week and look at what we know about the central structure of early type galaxies from EM observations and what we think EM observations can tell us about the mass of black holes harboured in galactic nuclei, both topics that have significant implications for LISA.

    Monday, 4 October 2004

    1. J. W. Armstrong, F. B. Estabrook and Massimo Tinto, "Time-Delay Interferometry for Space-based Gravitational Wave Searches", Astroph. J., 527, 814 (1999).
      [PDF]

    Interferometry with LISA will not be physical interferometry where the laser signals from both arms are directly interfered, as might be the case with an interferometer you build in your kitchen. Instead, phase information is recorded and combined in various ways to control different kinds of noise, providing a unique flexibility in controlling the observatory's sensitivity. This technique is called "time delay interferometry" (TDI) and is central to the operation of LISA as an astronomical facility.

    Monday, 27 September 2004

    1. Kristen Menou, "Probing distant massive black holes with LISA", CQG, 20, S37 [2003]
      [PDF]

    2. LISA Pre-Phase A Report, Section 1.2 (pgs. 19-36)
      [PDF]

    There was interest in finishing the survey of LISA sources that we started last week from section 1.2 of the LISA Pre-Phase A Report. To complement this, we'll also take a look at a short paper about seeing extra-galactic black holes with LISA, as a primer for future in depth papers on these sources.

    Monday, 20 September 2004

    1. LISA Pre-Phase A Report, Section 1.2 (pgs. 19-36)
      [PDF]

    2. LISA Pre-Phase A Report, Section 2.8 (pgs. 47-52)
      [PDF]

    The LISA Pre-Phase A Report is often used as the definitive document describing the LISA mission. If you look at the entire PDF file, you will see a wide range of topics discussed, many of which will be of interest to us eventually. The sections for this week are introductions to the LISA mission concept and a survey of relevant astrophysical sources in the LISA band. This is a good starting point given the wide range of backgrounds we're expecting in our reading group. You can also obtain the Full LISA Pre-Phase A Report.
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    Last Updated: 1 Dec 2004