We have developed a torsion pendulum facility for LISA gravitational
reference sensor ground testing that allows us to put significant upper limits
on residual stray forces exerted by LISA-like position sensors on a
representative test mass and to characterize specific sources of disturbances
for LISA. We present here the details of the facility, the experimental
procedures used to maximize its sensitivity, and the techniques used to
characterize the pendulum itself that allowed us to reach a torque sensitivity
below 20 fNm /sqrt{Hz} from 0.3 to 10 mHz. We also discuss the implications of
the obtained results for LISA.Comment: To be published in Classical and Quantum Gravity, special issue on
Amaldi5 2003 conference proceedings (10 pages, 6 figures
