Gravitational-wave astronomy with a clock based detector network

Since LIGO’s first detection of a merging binary black hole system a decade ago, gravitational wave astronomy has become a unique window into the universe around us. Future space-based detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will give access to the yet undiscovered world of low frequency gravitational waves, which are hidden from ground-based detectors by terrestrial noise. Atomic sensors such as optical clocks and atom interferometers offer a suite of capabilities that are unique and complimentary to those of interferometric detectors like LISA, through their tunable designs that allow measurements over large frequency bands (mHZ - Hz).

In this talk, we will present recent results in which we study the use of one-way Doppler tracking measurements within space-based atomic clock networks, which can operate in conjunction with LISA and similar detectors, to extract astrophysically relevant information about gravitational wave sources. We will explore measurement protocols, dominant noise sources, preliminary data analysis of simulated gravitational wave sources, and outline the science cases that motivate such detectors.