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.

We evaluate thermal noise (Brownian motion) in a rigid reference cavity used for frequency stabilization of lasers, based on the mechanical loss of cavity materials and the numerical analysis of the mirror-spacer mechanics with the direct application of the fluctuation dissipation theorem. This noise sets a fundamental limit for the frequency stability achieved with a rigid frequency-reference cavity of order 1 Hz/ square root Hz (0.01 Hz/ square root Hz) at 10 mHz (100 Hz) at room temperature. This level coincides with the world-highest level stabilization results.

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.

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