A New Quantum Experiment May Finally Allow Physicists To Detect The Graviton, A Particle That Carries The Force Of Gravity
Physicists have designed an experiment that could detect graviton, a particle that carries the force of gravity. If it does actually exist, it has eluded researchers for more than a century.
The effects of gravity are pretty obvious. All you have to do is knock an object off a table to witness gravity at work.
But seeing the underlying mechanisms of gravity isn’t so simple. Gravitons have such weak interactions that they’ve never been detected, and some experts think they never will be.
A team of physicists from Stockholm University in Sweden is holding out hope that their experiment can measure the “gravito-phononic effect” and identify individual gravitons for the first time ever.
The experiment would involve cooling an almost 4,000-pound bar of aluminum to just above absolute zero.
Then, it needs to be hooked up to continuous quantum sensors and wait for gravitational waves to come into contact with it.
Once that happens, the instrument should issue vibrations of a very small scale that the sensors will detect.
By measuring the vibrations of the instrument, the team believes that they will be able to spot tiny changes in energy levels and detect individual gravitons.
Each vibrational signal can be cross-checked against previous data to confirm they were caused by a gravitational wave event and not background interference. Unfortunately, those quantum sensors do not exist yet. The team wants to build some in the near future.
mast3r – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
“We’re certain this experiment would work,” said Thomas Beitel, a co-author of the study and a theoretical physicist.
“Now that we know that gravitons can be detected, it’s added motivation to further develop the appropriate quantum-sensing technology. With some luck, one will be able to capture single gravitons soon.”
Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces of physics that most people are familiar with, but at the same time, it is also the most mysterious.
However, since experts know that electromagnetism has the photon, the weak interaction has W and Z bosons, and the strong interaction has the gluon, some believe that gravity should have its own mediating particle, the graviton.
Looking back at some of the earliest experiments in the field of physics can help inform the new experiment.
For instance, in the 1960s, physicist Joseph Weber used solid aluminum cylinders to try to find gravitational waves. The cylinders were hung from steel wire to eliminate background noise.
If gravitational waves went past the cylinders, they would trigger vibrations that could be converted into measurable electrical signals, much like the design of the new experiment.
Weber claimed he detected gravitational waves as early as 1969. However, his results could not be replicated. It wasn’t until 2015 that the phenomenon was detected.
With an upgrade to Weber’s experiment, it might be possible to detect gravitons. The final piece of the puzzle is the quantum sensors. The researchers believe the technology will become available soon.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
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