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Monday, September 12, 2011

New Apparatus For Measuring Gravity Waves

GEO600 tool
GEO600 (nature.com)
Since Einstein's General Relativity theory issue, there is still a proof is still lacking. Ie gravitational waves. From the general relativity equations, the presence of gravitational waves is possible, but the power of the wave is very small. Keep all tools with high accuracy in order to measure it. Consequently, any small disturbance can cause the measurement of gravitational waves is lost. However, With the "squeezed light" method Scientists from the Max Planck Society and the Leibniz University Hannover likewise use quantum physics in a countermove in order to remove the interfering effect. The new type of laser light improves the measuring accuracy of the gravitational wave detector GEO600 by around 50 percent and thus increases its effective sensitivity. This is the first time this technology has been used outside of a laboratory test anywhere in the world.

In theory, the presence of gravitational waves can be easily measured when we measure it in a supernova explosion. However, it is not possible. Since the closest distance to the supernova explosion of the earth is millions of miles. "Thanks to the squeezed laser, We Were Able to increase of the measuring sensitivity of GEO600 to 150%," says Hartmut Grote, WHO heads the detector operation. "The new light source fulfils all requirements as expected." In future, this technology Could be used to even double the measuring accuracy. In the search for the almost undetectable gravitational waves, this increase of in sensitivity is an Important Step to Their direct detection.

test result data of GEO600
Test result data of GEO600 (nature.com)

This tool is the result of an international collaboration called The LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Measurement was performed at the QUEST (Center for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research). If they manage to detect it, then this will solve the problem of gravity that has been floating a hundred years.

Respect to the tool uses a laser (light squeezed), then according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle: it is impossible to measure simultaneously the color and intensity of the laser beam. It is precisely these researchers used to minimize disturbance of the shot noise in the measurements. Ie by increasing the laser intensity, the consequence is a color laser measurement becomes inaccurate. However, this is not a problem, because the color of the laser is not included in the measurement parameters.

reprinted from sciencedaily.com and nature.com

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