Response of a Spaceborn Gravitational Wave Antenna to Solar Oscillations

We investigate the possibility of observing very small amplitude low frequency solar oscillations with the proposed laser interferometer space antenna LISA. For frequencies below ∼ 2 × 10 − 4 Hz the dominant contribution is from the near zone time dependent gravitational quadrupole moments associated with the normal modes of oscillation. For frequencies ν above ∼ 3 × 10 − 4 Hz the dominant contribution is from gravitational radiation generated by the quadrupole oscillations which is larger than the Newtonian signal by a factor ∼ (2 πrν/c ) 4 , where r is the distance to the Sun, and c is the velocity of light. The low order solar quadrupole pressure and gravity oscillation modes have not yet been detected above the solar background by helioseismic velocity and intensity measurements. Our estimates of the amplitudes needed to give a detectable signal on a LISA type space laser interferometer imply surface velocity amplitudes on the sun of the order of 1 − 10 mm/sec in the frequency range 1 − 5 10 − 4 Hz. Such surface velocities are below the current sensitivity limits on helioseismic measurements. If modes exist with frequencies and amplitudes in this range they could be detected with a LISA type laser interferometer.