It may be possible to construct a laser interferometer gravitational wave antenna in space with h(rms) approximately 10(-27) at f approximately 0.1 Hz in this century. Using this antenna, (1) typically 10(5) chirp signals of coalescing binary neutron stars per year may be detected with S/N approximately 10(4); (2) we can directly measure the acceleration of the universe by a 10 yr observation of binary neutron stars; and (3) the stochastic gravitational waves of Omega(GW) > or similar to 10(-20) predicted by the inflation may be detected by correlation analysis. Our formula for phase shift due to accelerating motion might be applied for binary sources of LISA.

DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. DECIGO is expected to open a new window of observation for gravitational wave astronomy especially between 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz, revealing various mysteries of the universe such as dark energy, formation mechanism of supermassive black holes, and inflation of the universe. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of three drag-free spacecraft, whose relative displacements are measured by a differential Fabry-Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch two missions, DECIGO pathfinder and pre-DECIGO first and finally DECIGO in 2024.

DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. It aims at detecting various kinds of gravitational waves between 1 mHz and 100 Hz frequently enough to open a new window of observation for gravitational wave astronomy. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of three drag-free satellites, 1000 km apart from each other, whose relative displacements are measured by a Fabry–Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch DECIGO in 2024 after a long and intense development phase, including two pathfinder missions for verification of required technologies.

The primary target for the planned space-borne gravitational wave interferometers DECIGO/BBO is a primordial gravitational wave background (PGWB). However there exist astrophysical foregrounds and among them, gravitational waves from neutron star (NS) binaries are the solid and strong component that must be identified and subtracted. In this paper, we discuss the geometry of detector configurations preferable for identifying the NS/NS binary signals. As a first step, we analytically estimate the minimum signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the binaries for several static detector configurations that are characterized by adjustable geometrical parameters, and determine the optimal values for these parameters. Next we perform numerical simulations to take into account the effect of detector motions, and find reasonable agreements with the analytical results. We show that, with the standard network formed by 4 units of triangle detectors, the proposed BBO sensitivity would be sufficient in receiving gravitational waves from all the NS/NS binaries at z ≤ 5 with SNRs higher than 25. We also discuss the minimum sensitivity of DECIGO required for the foreground identification.

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