World’s most sensitive experiment detects distortions in space-time smaller than a trillionth of a hair
World’s most sensitive experiment detects distortions in space-time smaller than a trillionth of a hair
World’s most sensitive experiment detects tiny space-time distortions
...The research team at Cardiff University took a bold step toward understanding the quantum nature of gravity by setting new limits on the existence of very high-frequency gravitational waves...
“Our experiment is trying to answer the question of whether space-time is ‘quantized’,” Abhinav Patra, MSc, a doctoral student in the university’s Gravity Exploration Institute and lead author of the study, stated. “Modern physics treats space and time not as two separate things, but as a single physical entity.”
By correlating data from two independent interferometers, the team ruled out certain high-frequency gravitational waves that might be predicted by quantum theories of gravity.
This correlation method allowed them to isolate potential signals from random noise and effectively filter out local disturbances like seismic vibrations or thermal fluctuations...