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The LISA–Taiji network

Nature Astronomy volume 4, pages 108–109 (2020)Cite this article

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Taiji is a gravitational-wave space facility proposed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences3. The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are involved in building it. Like LISA, Taiji is composed of a triangle of three spacecraft with a separation distance of 3 million kilometres in a heliocentric orbit ahead of the Earth by about 20° (Fig. 1). The telescope diameter will be 40 cm, the displacement noise is expected to be 8 pm Hz−1/2, and the acceleration noise is expected to be 3 fm s−2 Hz−1/2 at 1 mHz. Since the spacecraft are farther apart than in LISA, Taiji is slightly more sensitive to low-frequency gravitational waves4. The Taiji project consists of the following three steps. The first step is to launch a satellite to demonstrate the feasibility of the Taiji technology roadmap. The Taiji pathfinder, officially called Taiji-1, successfully launched on 20 September 2019 and is currently operational. Following Taiji-1, two satellites will be launched to verify the key technologies, including long-baseline interferometry in space by 2024. Finally, Taiji is planned to launch during the same period as LISA. If Taiji joins the LISA constellation, assuming a one-year overlap, the LISA–Taiji network in space (Fig. 1) is expected to significantly improve the sky localization of gravitational-wave sources (luminosity distance and solid angle) due to the large separation of the two constellations.

Localizing gravitational-wave sources quickly and accurately is one of the key tasks for ground-based and space-based gravitational-wave observations. Accurate localization is crucial for follow-up electromagnetic spectroscopic observations and the unique identification of their host galaxies. With an accurate knowledge of the redshift of the host galaxy, gravitational-wave sources can be used as standard sirens to independently explore the expansion history of the Universe5.

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Fig. 1: Configuration of the LISA–Taiji network.
Fig. 2: Measurements of the angular resolution.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. Zhao, J.-M. Wang, and J. Zaanen for helpful comments. Z.-K.G. is supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China grants no. 11690021 and no. 11575272, by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences grants no. XDB23030100 and no. XDA15020701, and by the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS. Y.-L.W. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China grants no. 11851302 and no. 11747601. R.-G.C. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China grants no. 11690022, no. 11435006, and no. 11821505.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Wen-Hong Ruan, Chang Liu, Zong-Kuan Guo, Yue-Liang Wu & Rong-Gen Cai

  2. School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Wen-Hong Ruan, Chang Liu, Zong-Kuan Guo, Yue-Liang Wu & Rong-Gen Cai

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Correspondence to Zong-Kuan Guo.

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Ruan, WH., Liu, C., Guo, ZK. et al. The LISA–Taiji network. Nat Astron 4, 108–109 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-1008-4

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