Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna

Monitoring of vibrational eigenmodes of an elastic body excited by gravitational waves (GWs) was one of the first concepts proposed for GW detection. At laboratory scale, these experiments became known as resonant-bar detectors first developed by Joseph Weber in the 1960s. Due to the dimensions of these bars, the targeted signal frequencies were in the kHz range. Weber also pointed out that monitoring of vibrations of Earth or the Moon could reveal GWs in the mHz band. His Lunar Surface Gravimeter experiment deployed on the Moon by the Apollo 17 crew was a first attempt to observe GWs on the Moon.

In 2020, the Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna (LGWA) was proposed to ESA. It consists of four stations equipped with high-end vibration sensors deployed inside a permanently shadowed region (PSR) of the Moon. The LGWA pathfinder mission Soundcheck was recently selected by ESA into the Reserve Pool of Science Activities for the Moon and is being prepared for a future launch opportunity. The project is supported by an international collaboration of now almost 200 members. The LGWA will be able to observe GWs in a frequency band inaccessible to other GW detectors. It will be able to observe GWs from the first generation of black-holes that populated the Universe, and lead to breakthrough astrophysics with multi-messenger studies of white-dwarf binaries and supernovae. At the same time, the LGWA will greatly improve our understanding of the lunar interior and the geophysical environment of a PSR.

- Lorella Angelini (NASA GSFC)
- Stefano Benetti (INAF)
- Alessandro Bertolini (Nikhef)
- Xing Bian (CAS)
- Alessandro Bonforte (INGV)
- Enrico Bozzo (University of Geneva)
- Marcel ter Brake (University of Twente)
- Marica Branchesi (GSSI)
Christophe Collette (University of Liège)
- Stefano Covino (INAF)
- Roberto Della Ceca (INAF)

- Riccardo DeSalvo (University of Sannio)
- Gianluca Di Rico (INAF)
- Alessandro Frigeri (INAF)
- Jan Harms (GSSI)
- Joris van Heijningen (UCLouvain)
- Augusto Marcelli (INFN)
- Andrea Maselli (GSSI)
- Marco Olivieri (INGV)
- Andrea Perali (University of Camerino)
- Roberto Serafinelli (INAF)