Electron test-mass charging aboard the future space interferometers

Abstract

Interplanetary high-energy ions and electrons penetrate and charge metal free-falling test-masses aboard the interferometers devoted to gravitational wave detection in space. The charging of the LISA Pathfinder (LISA-PF) gold-platinum test masses due to galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) protons and helium nuclei was simulated with the Fluka Monte Carlo program in a previous work. The role of the interplanetary electrons is discussed here. Present results can be extended to other missions and, in particular, to the secondgeneration space interferometers.