China's Taiji Program Achieves Key Breakthrough in Space-Based Gravitational Wave Detection
Tags Hardware · Infrastructure
A Chinese Academy of Sciences team successfully developed and ground-tested a full-function interferometer optical bench for the Taiji space-based gravitational wave detection program, achieving picometer-level measurement accuracy (one ten-thousandth of a human hair diameter). The measurement stability was enhanced tenfold and noise levels were greatly reduced, with key indicators fully meeting Taiji-2 mission requirements. The results were published in the journal Research. The Taiji program deploys 3 satellites with 3-million-km arm-length laser interferometers. Taiji-1, China's first satellite in the program, was launched in August 2019 and has been performing well in orbit.
Technical significance
The Taiji interferometer breakthrough brings China's space-based gravitational wave detection program from prototype to engineering development. Picometer-level measurement accuracy is a critical milestone for the Taiji-2 mission, which aims to detect gravitational waves in a frequency band between LISA and ground-based detectors. This positions China as a major player in the global gravitational wave detection race alongside ESA/NASA's LISA mission.