Division of Electronics, Detectors and Computing for Physics (DEDIP)

ISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), the European Space Agency's large-scale mission to explore the Universe by observing the many sources of gravitational waves, was adopted on Thursday January 25 by ESA's Scientific Programs Committee, meaning that the concept and technology are recognized as sufficiently advanced for construction of the instrument and satellites to begin. Launch is scheduled for 2035.

This mission will revolutionize astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics, with 3 satellites orbiting the Sun in a 2.5 million km triangle to detect gravitational waves emitting in the millihertz band, such as supermassive black hole binaries. These 3 satellites exchange laser beams to interferometrically detect distance variations of the order of ten picometers induced by gravitational waves. Irfu is heavily involved in the LISA project, contributing to the instrument, data analysis and source science. It is in charge of the reference mass simulator and the stable structure for testing the interferometric core, the analysis of alerts, a contribution to the global analysis and co-leading of the project for France. It is also preparing the scientific exploitation and in particular the tests associated with fundamental physics, the study of the primordial Universe and the study of magnetic fields in white dwarf binary systems.