Science: Improved gravitational wave detection
A team of researchers from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US has developed a compressed light system to improve the sensitivity of detecting gravitational waves. In his article, published In Science, scientists described how changes made to the observatory reduced the flickering of quantum fields, leading to an increase in the number of detected signals.
LIGO, which won the Nobel Prize for detecting gravitational waves in 2015, uses laser beams that split in two to detect microscopic fluctuations in space-time. These waves were predicted by Albert Einstein and are ripples in the fabric of the universe created by massive cosmic events such as black hole mergers.
Since the observatory’s inception, researchers have been tasked with distinguishing between gravitational waves and quantum noise that interfere with accurate measurements. To solve this problem, the team designed a crystal and used an array of mirrors and lenses to compress light into a quantum state, reducing flicker and increasing LIGO’s sensitivity.
Early improvements to LIGO improved detection of high-frequency gravitational waves. After additional modifications, the team was able to detect gravitational waves at lower frequencies, which significantly expanded the range of recorded signals.
As a result, the observatory’s sensitivity to gravitational waves has doubled, which will make it possible to study remote regions of the Universe. This improvement is expected to enable scientists to study black holes formed in the early epochs after the birth of stars and deepen their understanding of the evolution of the cosmos.
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