Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs, $10^2 < m_{\rm BH}/\mathrm{M}_\odot < 10^5$) populate the poorly constrained mass range between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. Upcoming gravitational-wave facilities will play a key role in probing this population and its formation channels. In particular, IMBHs and intermediate mass-ratio inspirals involving an IMBH and a stellar-mass compact...
Understanding the formation and evolution of intermediate-mass (IMBH; $10^3 M_\odot < M_\mathrm{BH} < 10^5 M_\odot$) and supermassive black holes (SMBH; $M_\mathrm{BH} ≥ 10^5 M_\odot$) is among the hottest and most challenging open topics in astrophysics. The proposed Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna (LGWA) will open a new observational window on the mergers of these systems, probing a...
The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna payload will be composed of an array of seismic stations in a permanently shadowed crater. Highly sensitive cryogenic inertial sensors will be deployed at seismic stations to detect the difference between the elastic response of the Moon and the motion of the suspended inertial sensor proof mass induced by gravitational waves. This talk presents the first...
The main goal of the LGWA mission is to observe and monitor gravitational-wave (GW) signals. One of the key technologies employed for this purpose is the inverted pendulum suspension, whose low resonance frequency provides the mechanical sensitivity needed to detect the extremely faint surface displacements induced by GWs. However, because this suspension is extremely soft, the sensor becomes...
The Lunar Gravitational-Wave Antenna (LGWA). The development of such a mission requires the qualification of seismometers and other cryogenic technologies under representative lunar conditions. To support this effort, a laboratory-scale Moon Emulator is being developed to reproduce high-vacuum and cryogenic environments for testing and validation.
As part of this project, the presented work...
We present a preliminary assessment of the required and expected performances for the LGWA Soundcheck sensor acquisition electronics (LGWA Soundcheck E-Box). The most stringent requirements come from sensing noise performances and power consumption. We discuss the current assumptions and the projected performances based on the legacy from the Insight E-Box and the LISA Pathfinder GRS FEE. The...
LGWA will expand our observational reach and help us access new sources of GWs. At the same time, third-generation (3G) gravitational-wave (GW) detectors will usher GW science into the big-data era, with tens to hundreds of thousands of detections each year. In this talk, I will discuss the complementarity of ground-based detectors and LGWA, with a focus on the multiband observation potential...
The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna (LGWA) mission aims to deploy a network of highly sensitive inertial sensors on the Moon, providing unprecedented observations in the decihertz gravitational-wave band. To successfully manage the data flow and fully exploit the scientific capabilities of the mission, a robust and distributed Science Ground Segment (SGS) must be designed from the earliest...
Improving the inertial sensitivity of the Lunar Gravitational Wave Antenna (LGWA) directly enhances its detection sensitivity. By exploiting the Meissner effect, superconducting thin-film dual-coil designs enable sub-femtometer precision sensing and high-precision actuation with negligible heat dissipation, thereby reducing required cooling capacity, radiator area, total weight, and mission...
A design is presented for a superconducting displacement sensor which could provide an alternative approach to the persistent current sensing scheme for the LGWA. The sensor is predicted to give a displacement sensitivity better than 1 fm Hz-1/2 over a frequency range from mHz up to kHz, with a working range of order 1 mm, without injecting heat or significant mechanical noise into the system....
The recent success of gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy together with renewed plans for lunar geophysical instrumentation has revived interest in using the Moon as a resonant detector for mid-frequency (mHz-Hz) GWs. In realistic observational scenarios, the GW strain amplitude is expected to be constrained independently by networks of GW detectors, which motivates an inverse, tomographic...
