Residual gas damping noise in constrained volume in space-borne gravitational wave detection

Abstract The residual gas damping in the enclosure surrounding a free-fall test mass is an important limiting factor for the sensitivity of some space detection missions. We present a constrained volume damping model for space-borne gravitational wave detection, which depends on the escape time needed for a molecule to diffuse out of the gap between two adjacent surfaces. Using a completely inelastic molecular collision prediction, we calculate the escape times in the two most common constrained volumes, cylinder and cuboid, respectively. Both calculations agree well with Monte Carlo simulations. Additionally, the theoretical model of the residual gas damping presented in this work is in good agreement with the experimental results in the ground torsion pendulum test of LISA and its precursor LISA Pathfinder.