Accurate simulation of the propagation of light between the spacecraft of the laser interferometer space antenna (LISA) gravitational wave observatory will be a vital tool in determining the optical design of the telescopes used in the constellation. In this work, we examine the methods available for numerical simulation of this propagation, and consider the effect of an aberrated transmitting telescope (Tx) on the light collected by the receiving telescope (Rx). Propagation software has been developed using direct numerical integration methods, and has been validated by comparison to analytical solutions for particular cases. Zernike modal aberrations up to and including primary spherical have been considered in the Tx, and, in particular, the effects of defocus, astigmatism and coma were examined. It was found that minimization of the even radial order aberrations in Tx resulted in a reduced wavefront error at Rx, while odd aberrations such as coma can displace the maximum irradiance away from the optical axis. Thus careful consideration of the impact of telescope aberrations will be required to minimise detrimental effects on the detection of gravitational waves.

激光干涉仪太空天线（LISA）重力波天文台在航天器之间的光传播的准确模拟将是确定星座中使用的望远镜的光学设计的重要工具。在这项工作中，我们检查了可用于此传播数值模拟的方法，并考虑了畸变的发射望远镜（Tx）对接收望远镜（Rx）收集的光的影响。传播软件是使用直接数值积分方法开发的，并且已通过与特定情况下的分析解决方案进行比较进行了验证。在Tx中已经考虑到主要球体的Zernike模态像差，尤其是检查了散焦，散光和昏迷的影响。发现最小化Tx中的偶数径向像差会导致Rx处的波前误差减小，而奇数像差（例如彗形象差）会使最大辐照度偏离光轴。因此，将需要仔细考虑望远镜像差的影响，以最小化对重力波检测的不利影响。