Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features dominate the mid-infrared spectra of star-forming galaxies and can be useful to calibrate star formation rates (SFRs) and diagnose ionized states of grains. However, the PAH 3.3 μm feature has not been studied as much as other PAH features since it is weaker than others and resides outside of Spitzer capability. In order to detect and calibrate the 3.3 μm PAH emission and investigate its potential as an SFR indicator, we carried out an AKARI mission program, AKARI mJy Unbiased Survey of Extragalactic Sources (AMUSES), and compared its sample with various literature samples. We obtained 2-5 μm low-resolution spectra of 20 flux-limited galaxies with mixed spectral energy distribution classes, which yielded the detection of the 3.3 μm PAH emission from 3 out of 20 galaxies. For the combined sample of AMUSES and literature samples, the 3.3 μm PAH luminosities correlate with the infrared luminosities of star-forming galaxies, albeit with a large scatter (1.5 dex). The correlation appears to break down at the domain of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), and the power of the 3.3 μm PAH luminosity as a proxy for the infrared luminosity is hampered at log[L PAH3.3 erg–1 s–1] > ~42.0. Possible origins for this deviation in the correlation are discussed, including contributions from active galactic nuclei and strongly obscured young stellar objects, and the destruction of PAH molecules in ULIRGs.

The DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese, outer space gravitational wave detector. We previously set the default design parameters to provide a good target sensitivity to detect the primordial gravitational waves (GWs). However, the updated upper limit of the primordial GWs by the Planck observations motivated us toward further optimization of the target sensitivity. Previously, we had not considered optical diffraction loss due to the very long cavity length. In this paper, we optimize various DECIGO parameters by maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the primordial GWs to quantum noise, including the effects of diffraction loss. We evaluated the power spectrum density for one cluster in DECIGO utilizing the quantum noise of one differential Fabry–Perot interferometer. Then we calculated the SNR by correlating two clusters in the same position. We performed the optimization for two cases: the constant mirror-thickness case and the constant mirror-mass case. As a result, we obtained the SNR dependence on the mirror radius, which also determines various DECIGO parameters. This result is the first step toward optimizing the DECIGO design by considering the practical constraints on the mirror dimensions and implementing other noise sources.

The DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is designed to detect gravitational waves at frequencies between 0.1 and 10 Hz. In this frequency band, one of the most important science targets is the detection of primordial gravitational waves. DECIGO plans to use a space interferometer with optical cavities to increase its sensitivity. For evaluating its sensitivity, diffraction of the laser light has to be adequately considered. There are two kinds of diffraction loss: leakage loss outside the mirror and higher-order mode loss. These effects are treated differently inside and outside of the Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity. We estimated them under the conditions that the FP cavity has a relatively high finesse and the higher-order modes do not resonate. As a result, we found that the effects can be represented as a reduction of the effective finesse of the cavity with regard to quantum noise. This result is useful for optimization of the design of DECIGO. This method is also applicable to any FP cavities with a relatively small beam cut and the finesse sufficiently higher than 1.