Suppressing data anomalies of gravitational reference sensors with time delay interferometry combinations

Abstract

For the LISA and Taiji missions, both transient and continuous data anomalies would pose significant challenges to the detection, estimation, and subsequent scientific interpretation of gravitational wave signals. As is indicated by the experiences of LISA PathFinder and Taiji-1, these anomalies may originate from the disturbances of the gravitational reference sensors due to routine maintenances and unexpected environmental or instrumental issues. To effectively mitigate such anomalies and thereby enhance the robustness and reliability of the scientific outputs, we suggest to employ the “position noise suppressing” time delay interferometry channels. Through analytical derivations and numerical simulations, we demonstrate that these time delay interferometry channels can suppress data anomalies by more than 2 orders of magnitude within the sensitive band of 0.1 mHz - 0.05 Hz, while still remaining sensitive to most of the target signals. Compared with existing research that focuses on reconstructing and subtracting data anomalies, our method does not rely on the prior knowledge about the models of anomalies. Furthermore, the potential application scenarios of these channels have also been explored.