Measuring gravitational wave memory with LISA

Understand

Gravitational wave (GW) astronomy has revolutionized our capacity to explore nature.

• The next generation of observatories, among which the space-borne detector Laser Interferometer Space Antenna LISA, is expected to yield orders of magnitude of signal-to-noise ratio improvement, and reach fainter and novel features of General Relativity.
• Among them, an exciting possibility is the detection of GW memory.
• Interpreted as a permanent deformation of the background spacetime after a GW perturbation has passed through the detector, GW memory offers a novel avenue to proof-test General Relativity, access the non-linear nature of gravity, and provide complementary information to better characterize the GW source.