Quantum mechanics does not only describe how the world works on its smallest scales, but also affects the motion of macroscopic objects. An international research team, including four scientists from the MPI for Gravitational Physics (Albert-Einstein-Institut/AEI) and Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, has shown how they can influence the motion of mirrors, each weighing more than 40 kg, in the Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detector trough the deliberate use of quantum mechanics. At the core of their experiment published today in Physcial Review Letters is a squeezed-light source, developed and built at the AEI in Hanover, which generates specially tuned laser radiation and improves the detector’s measurement sensitivity during observing runs.
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Source: Phys.org