Welcome to the 10th International LISA Symposium

The European space agency ESA has recently selected the science themes for the L2 and L3 launch opportunities. A Gravitational Wave Observatory will be flown in 2034. The eLISA mission concept proposed as a straw man mission for the L3 slot will be refined over the coming years until the L3 mission concept will be selected before the end of this decade. The exact details will depend on the international participation available.

The last four years have been a turbulent time for a U.S. role in a space-based gravitational-wave observatory. In the first half of this talk, Stebbins will review the status of, and the options for, a NASA role in a GW mission, including L3 and the options in the 2020 decadal. In the second half of the talk, Cornish will characterize the science that either path might lead to, and summarize the current US research activity and fertile areas for research in the next few years.

DECIGO is a space gravitational wave antenna with 1000km-length laser interferometers, targeting at observation of primordial gravitational wave background, neutron-star binary inspirals, and merger of intermediate- mass blackholes. One interferometer unit is formed by three spacecraft separated by 1000km from one another. Each spacecraft contains 100kg test mass and 10W laser source to form Fabry-Perot interferometer. The spacecraft is drag-free controlled to suppress the effect of external forces. DECIGO Pathfinder (DPF) is the first milestone mission to test critical issues for DECIGO. It will be a 400-kg satellite orbiting around the each. It has a few kilogram test masses and 30-cm Fabry-Perot cavity inside it. Stabilized laser interferometer and drag-free control are also on board. DPF is now one of a candidate of JAXA's small satellite mission. We submitted the mission proposal in March 2014, and is under selection process. In this presentation we will talk on the design and current status of DECIGO and DPF.

To be submitted