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World’s most sensitive experiment detects distortions in space-time smaller than a trillionth of a hair

https://interestingengineering.com/science/quantum-experiment-investigates-space-time

...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...

Batmancer @sh.itjust.works - 2mon

Hey that’s fun I never thought of space and time as a single entity.

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Delta_V @lemmy.world - 2mon

yeah, its a wild concept to wrap your head around

the further out we look in space, the longer it took for that light to reach us, so its effectively looking backwards through time

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trolololol @lemmy.world - 2mon

Human hair is not a scale. Why not put the freaking number somewhere in the news?

Also is it already running or not? And what frequency is "very high frequency"?

Don't read, it's as informative as watching science news on tv.

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trolololol @lemmy.world - 2mon

I read the article, really cool stuff. Keen to read more once they start operating, since this article seems to be about validating the instrument construction.

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