Noise characterization for LISA

Abstract

We consider the general problem of estimating the inflight LISA noise power spectra and cross-spectra, which are needed for detecting and estimating the gravitational wave signals present in the LISA data. For the LISA baseline design and in the long wavelength limit, we bound the error on all spectrum estimators that rely on the use of the fully symmetric Sagnac combination ($\zeta$). This procedure avoids biases in the estimation that would otherwise be introduced by the presence of a strong galactic background in the LISA data. We specialize our discussion to the detection and study of the galactic white dwarf-white dwarf binary stochastic signal.