High-Power AM-CW Lunar Laser Ranging as a μHz SGWB Detector
Abstract
High-power amplitude-modulated continuous-wave lunar laser ranging (AM-CW LLR) is a stochastic-gravitational-wave-background (SGWB) experiment that measures GW-driven drift and diffusion of the Earth--Moon orbit. Its observable is the coherent phase of a GHz modulation envelope returned by an individually resolved single hollow corner-cube retroreflector (HCCR), converted to absolute range and analyzed through its time-dependent mean and covariance. The response occurs at lunar orbital harmonics; the dominant low-eccentricity channel is centered at f2=0.847245 μHz, and a five-year broadband forecast applies to spectra smooth over the resolution scale Tobs−1=6.34nHz about that resonance. A scalar 1-kW, 1064-nm link yields 5.893×103 detected photons s−1 and an $88.8−−124.3\,μ$m photon contribution in 100 s, while the forecasts adopt projected total range precisions of $80$ and 50 μm. In the covariance-dominated weak-signal regime, Ωgw95∝σR2nuEff−1Tobs−4. Using the published Earth--Moon response normalization, the five-year 95\% thresholds are 1.86×10−7Dtot for 80 μm and 500 yr−1 and 2.42×10−8Dtot for 50 μm and 1500 yr−1, where Dtot is the full-analysis threshold divided by the unit-factor response-anchored forecast. If end-to-end calibration, sampling, and marginalization give Dtot≤1.15, the higher-performance campaign reaches nominal source-statistic equality for Ωgw=7.08×10−8 in five years. These measurable performance and information-retention requirements define high-power AM-CW LLR as a standalone quantitative SGWB experiment at the 0.85 μHz Earth--Moon resonance.
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BibTeX
@misc{turyshev2026highpower,
title = {{High-Power AM-CW Lunar Laser Ranging as a $μ$Hz SGWB Detector}},
author = {Slava G. Turyshev},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.04110},
eprint = {2605.04110},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04110},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - High-Power AM-CW Lunar Laser Ranging as a μHz SGWB Detector
AU - Slava G. Turyshev
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/06
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.04110
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04110
AB - High-power amplitude-modulated continuous-wave lunar laser ranging (AM-CW LLR) is a stochastic-gravitational-wave-background (SGWB) experiment that measures GW-driven drift and diffusion of the Earth--Moon orbit. Its observable is the coherent phase of a GHz modulation envelope returned by an individually resolved single hollow corner-cube retroreflector (HCCR), converted to absolute range and analyzed through its time-dependent mean and covariance. The response occurs at lunar orbital harmonics; the dominant low-eccentricity channel is centered at f_2=0.847245 μHz, and a five-year broadband forecast applies to spectra smooth over the resolution scale T_obs^−1=6.34nHz about that resonance. A scalar 1-kW, 1064-nm link yields 5.893×10^3 detected photons s^−1 and an $88.8−−124.3\,μ$m photon contribution in 100 s, while the forecasts adopt projected total range precisions of $80$ and 50 μm. In the covariance-dominated weak-signal regime, Ω_gw^95∝σ_R^2nuEff^−1T_obs^−4. Using the published Earth--Moon response normalization, the five-year 95\% thresholds are 1.86×10^−7Dtot for 80 μm and 500 yr^−1 and 2.42×10^−8Dtot for 50 μm and 1500 yr^−1, where Dtot is the full-analysis threshold divided by the unit-factor response-anchored forecast. If end-to-end calibration, sampling, and marginalization give Dtot≤1.15, the higher-performance campaign reaches nominal source-statistic equality for Ω_gw=7.08×10^−8 in five years. These measurable performance and information-retention requirements define high-power AM-CW LLR as a standalone quantitative SGWB experiment at the 0.85 μHz Earth--Moon resonance.
ER -