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Could This Bold New Technique Boost Gravitational-Wave Detection? (space.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the fun-with-photons dept.

Slashdot reader astroengine writes: One of the most expensive, complex and problematic components in gravitational wave detectors like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) — which made the first, historic detection of these ripples in space-time in September 2015 — is the 4-kilometer-long vacuum chambers that house all the interferometer optics. But what if this requirement for ground-based gravitational wave detectors isn't required? This suggestion has been made by a pair of physicists at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) who are developing a method that could allow extremely sensitive interferometers to operate in the "open air."

Their work, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, uses the weird quantum properties of light to counteract interference from turbulence in the air to allow interferometer measurements to be made. Their method, which is a variation on the classic Young's double-slit experiment, has been demonstrated in a tabletop experiment — but gravitational wave scientists are skeptical that it could be scaled up to remove sophisticated vacuums from their detectors.

32 comments

  1. Yes it will by 110010001000 · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Hopefully this will also prove that the Electric Universe is real. There have been papers published recently that prove that it is real, but everyone in Physics ignores them.

    1. Re:Yes it will by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hopefully this will also prove that the Electric Universe is real.

      No, the Electric Universe is virtual. The real universe is not electric but rather wind-up. The spiral galaxies are the springs which store the wound-up energy. The universe works like a gigantic cuckoo clock. With cables and weights winding up the spiral galaxies.

      Instead of pine cones for weights, the universe's cables are connected to the turtles.

      There have been papers published recently that prove that it is real, but everyone in Physics ignores them.

      But unfortunately, the authors were short on cash, and needed to use the papers to roll their smoking materials.

      However, the papers read like the authors were smoking before they wrote them. Which raises some interesting questions about the direction of the Arrow of Time.

      I don't think the Arrow of Time points forward or backwards.

      It points somewhere to the side.

      --
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    2. Re:Yes it will by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Interesting. In the Age of the Internet all things are equally true. Clearly I need to subscribe to your newsletter.

    3. Re:Yes it will by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The apparatus won't very well be able to detect electrical universe phenomena if it's designed not to, now can it.

    4. Re:Yes it will by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 2

      I don't think the Arrow of Time points forward or backwards.

      It points somewhere to the side.

      Actually "time flies like an arrow". According to Groucho Marx.
      "and", he added, "fruit flies like a banana".

    5. Re:Yes it will by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hopefully this will also prove that the Electric Universe is real. There have been papers published recently that prove that it is real, but everyone in Physics ignores them.

      No. it's become clear that the universe is imaginary. How else do we explain religions by a sci-fi writer who wrote "the best way to get rich is to start a religion", and politics from someone who wrote the art of the deal is to "tell people what they want to hear."

    6. Re:Yes it will by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just like the hyped up loop. Well just ignore everyone that says it horrible impractical to maintain a vacuum in hundreds of miles of tube. Or make some bullshit claim that 1/1000 the pressure of atmosphere isn’t a vacuum.

    7. Re:Yes it will by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Interesting. In the Age of the Internet all things are equally true.

      Yep. This means that finally, in the Age of the Internet, you can finally be right about something!

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    8. Re:Yes it will by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Hopefully this will also prove that the Electric Universe is real. There have been papers published recently that prove that it is real, but everyone in Physics ignores them.

      I've actually come across some explosive evidence that shows why it is being ignored by physicists.

      It's a big pile of worthless fucking shit.

      Apparently.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    9. Re:Yes it will by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Hyperloop gets you mad huh? lol.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  2. Clickbait by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dear slashdot editor,

    Fuck you and your fucking clickbait-style headline.
    I have read neither the fucking summary nor the fucking article because fuck you.

    kind regards,
    Go fuck yourself.

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    1. Re:Clickbait by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

      What is so "click bait" about this topic? It appears to be a very interesting concept.

    2. Re:Clickbait by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Please, don't hold back: tell us how you REALLY feel.

      Seriously though wow the bar for people whining has got low. We have an article which is really only of interest to nerds. And you're complaining. Perhaps the new tag line should be Slashdot: fuck the articles, we're going to whinge.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re:Clickbait by chihowa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's not the topic, which is interesting, but the headline that is bullshit clickbait. "Could this one weird trick boost gravitational-wave detection?"

      More and more headlines are reading like that and I find myself coming here less and less. (Interestingly, since I rarely come here, I get mod points every time and use them instead of posting. Posting less, I get fewer responses and less of a pull to engage in discussion, which makes me come even less. Negative feedback loop...)

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    4. Re:Clickbait by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      I guess the only thing more whiny than whining is whining about other people whining.
      You win!

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    5. Re:Clickbait by EETech1 · · Score: 1

      Or whining about the whiney whiner who is whining about the other people whining.

    6. Re:Clickbait by Memnos · · Score: 1

      Cue the appy apps guy.

      --
      I don't trust atoms -- they make up stuff.
  3. This one WEIRD trick that Slashdot readers HATE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Clickbait buzzword headlines. Jesus christ Slashdot advertisers, I mean "editors."

  4. Better idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If long straight vacuum chambers are required, why not combine this with hyperloop? We could cut the funding for this boondoggle in half, give the remaining half as a grant to Elon Musk, save money and get hyperloop faster and cheaper. Everyone wins.

    1. Re:Better idea by EETech1 · · Score: 2

      So, you would have to send identical twins down different hyperloops, and see if they age differently due to the gravitational waves?

  5. Mod parent up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Call it troll if you will, but my gut reaction is to either ignore clickbait-y headlines, or snark about them, and not about the summary.

    Because clickbait never matters.

    Nor do editors who won't edit but strive to come up with the stupidest clickbait-y headlines to insult our intelligence with.

  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Not new technique by Framboise · · Score: 1

    This is not a new method, the Handbury & Brown effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanbury_Brown_and_Twiss_effect) sensitive to the the Bose-Eisntein statistics of pairs of photons has been demonstrated in the 50's and used to measure the diameter of stars because the technics is insensitive to the atmospheric turbulence.

  8. the Socratic-Pauling effect by epine · · Score: 2

    The irony here is that after reading your comment, I learned something new, gleaned from a virtuous and vigorous clickbait immune response.

    Maybe half the esoteric physics I know I've learned from clickbait demolition.

    Likewise, not that long ago, maybe half of all neurological knowledge could be tracked to a skull-ripping dumdum hand-me-down from the grisly aftermath of the Eastern front.

    1. Re:the Socratic-Pauling effect by epine · · Score: 1

      Damn, I meant to type "Pauli" but my fingers had religious momentum.

    2. Re:the Socratic-Pauling effect by EETech1 · · Score: 1

      I just saw a very interesting video on how that whole detector works, and the troubles they face making the measurements.

      https://youtu.be/iphcyNWFD10

      Seems the only way they can be even remotely accurate enough is to eliminate every variable but one, and air was a biggie.

  9. Gravitational wave detection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't there an app for that?

    1. Re:Gravitational wave detection by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      Yes, but it only works in a vacuum.

  10. What the hell is a sophisticated vacuum? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    it could be scaled up to remove sophisticated vacuums from their detectors.

    What?

    Vacuums are pretty simple by definition.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  11. Cold fusion ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... anybody?

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    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  12. Just launch them into space by fubarrr · · Score: 1

    Just launch them into space, there you have a lot of space

    1. Re:Just launch them into space by ImprovOmega · · Score: 1

      Space isn't empty, contrary to popular belief. Even intergalactic space has a few atoms per cubic meter. If you need a true vacuum it's actually surprisingly hard to achieve.