The laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory is the most sensitive instrument for detecting ripples in space and time, and according to calculations by some physicists, it also happens to be the best instrument for emitting gravitational waves. Although these gravitational waves are too weak to be detected, laser pointer researchers believe that in principle they can detect some strange quantum effects between macroscopic objects.
The quantum impulse exerted on the LIGO mirror is the most efficient gravitational wave reflector in the world. At a meeting of the American Physical Society last week, Belinda Pang from the California Institute of Technology said in his report: “We have optimized the detection of gravitational waves at the same time as we have optimized the emission of gravitational waves.” Dual detectors in Washington and Louisiana, each with a pair of vertical detection arms up to 4km
Albert Einstein explained the origin of gravity in 1915: gravitational waves stretched the space itself. Massive objects such as the Earth distort the space and time around it, and the linear orbit of the object’s free movement is bent, so gravity is equivalently generated. Einstein predicted that gravitational waves will also be generated when two objects rotate with each other, and more than 1,000 physicists at LIGO have twice detected the gravitational waves emitted when two massive black holes merge.
After more than three months, LIGO once again detected the gravitational wave signal, which originated from the merger of two black holes 1.4 billion light years away from the earth. Relying on its two extremely precise detectors, one in Washington State and the other in Livingston, Louisiana. Each detector has a pair of 4km long perpendicular detection arms. The two detection arms are actually two long rulers. The researchers can measure the change in the length of these two rulers through laser, and then detect the curvature of space. This change is extremely small, and it is difficult to detect with such a long ruler. .
Both ends of the two long rulers are equipped with a 40-kilogram mirror. The green laser pointer reflects back and forth between the two mirrors. When the length of an arm changes, the laser will interfere and strengthen accordingly. Weaken. Researchers use this method called interferometry to obtain the change in ruler length. The gravitational wave is so weak, in order to detect it, LIGO’s measurement accuracy must reach 1/10,000 of the size of a proton.