Solar Plasma Noise in TianQin Laser Propagation: An Extreme Case and Statistical Analysis

Abstract TianQin (TQ) proposes to detect gravitational-wave signals by using laser interferometry. However, the laser propagation effect introduces a potential noise factor for TQ. In this work, we used magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to obtain the space magnetic field and plasma distributions during an extremely strong solar eruption, and based on the MHD simulation result, we investigated laser propagation noise for TQ. For the extremely strong solar eruption event, we find that the laser propagation noise closely approaches 100% of TQ’s displacement noise requirement for the Michelson combination, while the laser propagation noise is still about 30% of TQ’s displacement noise requirement for time-delay interferometry (TDI)- X combination. In addition, we investigate the laser propagation noise for 12 cases with different solar wind conditions. Our finding reveals a linear correlation between the laser propagation noise and several space weather parameters, e.g., solar wind dynamic pressure, Sym-H, and Dst, where the correlation coefficients for solar wind dynamic pressure are strongest. Combining the cumulative distribution of solar wind dynamic pressure from 1999 to 2021 with the linear correlation between solar wind dynamic pressure and laser propagation noise, we have determined that the occurrence rate of the laser propagation noise to be greater than 30% of TQ’s displacement noise requirement for the Michelson combination over the entire solar activity week is about 15%. In addition, we find that TDI can suppress the laser propagation noise, and reduce the occurrence rate of the laser propagation noise exceeding 30% of TQ’s requirement to less than 1%.