How Quantum Diamonds Will Help Us Detect Cosmic Collisions

Scientists have designed a tabletop gravitational wave detector that uses diamonds to see. Here's how this groundbreaking proposal could work.
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Back in 2015, the two detectors that make up the experiment called LIGO detected gravitational waves generated by two merging black holes. And now, some researchers believe they can build instruments that can detect gravitational waves even LIGO can’t see — instruments that would be small enough to fit on a table top.

Though the device is yet to be built, researchers believe a device like this that’s as small as 1 meter long could reveal low frequency gravitational waves. The proposed device would use nanoscale diamonds with defects, called nitrogen-vacancy centers or NV centers.

Find out more about how this new tech will work and how it might help us study the quantum character of gravity in this Elements.

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Tabletop quantum experiment could detect gravitational waves

"Researchers from UCL, University of Groningen, and University of Warwick propose a detector based on quantum technology that is 4000 times smaller than the detectors currently in use and could detect mid-frequency gravitational waves."

Scientists Start Developing a Mini Gravitational Wave Detector

"...there are gravitational waves made by much smaller events, like tiny primordial black holes from the beginning of the universe, black holes the size of our sun, and even hypothetical dark matter candidate particles called axions."

Try This at Home

"Check out these leisure-time LIGO-related activities that you can try alone or with friends. Build an interferometer, play a game, operate a virtual interferometer, or search for gravitational waves with your own computer!"

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