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arXiv · 2605.04110

High-Power AM-CW Lunar Laser Ranging as a $\mu$Hz SGWB Detector

Slava G. Turyshev
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Abstract

High-power amplitude-modulated continuous-wave lunar laser ranging (AM-CW LLR) is a stochastic-gravitational-wave-background (SGWB) experiment that measures GW-driven drift and diffusion of the Earth--Moon orbit. Its observable is the coherent phase of a GHz modulation envelope returned by an individually resolved single hollow corner-cube retroreflector (HCCR), converted to absolute range and analyzed through its time-dependent mean and covariance. The response occurs at lunar orbital harmonics; the dominant low-eccentricity channel is centered at $f_2=0.847245\,\mu{\rm Hz}$, and a five-year broadband forecast applies to spectra smooth over the resolution scale $T_{\rm obs}^{-1}=6.34\,$nHz about that resonance. A scalar 1-kW, 1064-nm link yields $5.893\times10^3$ detected photons s$^{-1}$ and an $88.8$--$124.3\,\mu$m photon contribution in 100 s, while the forecasts adopt projected total range precisions of $80$ and $50\,\mu$m. In the covariance-dominated weak-signal regime, $\Omega_{\rm gw}^{95}\propto\sigma_R^2\nuEff^{-1}T_{\rm obs}^{-4}$. Using the published Earth--Moon response normalization, the five-year 95\% thresholds are $1.86\times10^{-7}\Dtot$ for $80\,\mu$m and $500\,{\rm yr}^{-1}$ and $2.42\times10^{-8}\Dtot$ for $50\,\mu$m and $1500\,{\rm yr}^{-1}$, where $\Dtot$ is the full-analysis threshold divided by the unit-factor response-anchored forecast. If end-to-end calibration, sampling, and marginalization give $\Dtot\le1.15$, the higher-performance campaign reaches nominal source-statistic equality for $\Omega_{\rm gw}=7.08\times10^{-8}$ in five years. These measurable performance and information-retention requirements define high-power AM-CW LLR as a standalone quantitative SGWB experiment at the $0.85\,\mu{\rm Hz}$ Earth--Moon resonance.

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Slava G. Turyshev. 2026-05-04. High-Power AM-CW Lunar Laser Ranging as a $\mu$Hz SGWB Detector. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04110

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