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posted by janrinok on Thursday January 08, @08:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the Artificial-Interference dept.

https://www.hzdr.de/db/Cms?pNid=99&pOid=76137

Proposed is a plan to impact gravity waves, imparting more energy unto them, by using lasers - much like the LIGO interferometer, but in reverse. By imparting energy from light into the gravity waves, we subtly change the gravity wave itself, and can measure the amount of energy taken from the light source. Thus, we can measure properties about the gravity wave - and, perhaps, the graviton.

In an interferometer tailored to Schützhold's idea, it could be possible not only to observe gravitational waves but also to manipulate them for the first time by stimulated emission and absorption of gravitons. According to Schützhold, light pulses whose photons are entangled, that is, quantum mechanically coupled, could significantly increase the sensitivity of the interferometer further. "Then we could even draw inferences about the quantum state of the gravitational field itself," says Schützhold.

High-school level summary at link, with link to journal article contained within.


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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by turgid on Thursday January 08, @09:17AM (1 child)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 08, @09:17AM (#1429054) Journal

    This is genuine flying saucer technology. No wonder they've been letting us see lots of videos of UFOs in the last couple of years. I'll get my tinfoil hat.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 11, @07:53AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 11, @07:53AM (#1429547)

      I beg too dfferr.. Itt's the sccienttist elite only rreleasing enogh inforrmation to distract you from their pedophile ring.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Tork on Thursday January 08, @04:31PM (4 children)

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 08, @04:31PM (#1429090) Journal
    Any chance we'll ever have artificial gravity?
    --
    🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
    • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday January 08, @04:42PM (1 child)

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Thursday January 08, @04:42PM (#1429092)

      I don't know, but thinking happy thoughts gives us antigravity. Oh we also need fairy dust.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 09, @01:40AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 09, @01:40AM (#1429143) Journal

      Any chance we'll ever have artificial gravity?

      Sure, put yourself in a spinning object. Now, if you're wanting to shield yourself from lethal gravitational fields, I think it's not going to work. The problem is that the universe seems to respect the holographic principle. That means in some sense those fields are unshieldable.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Friday January 09, @03:28PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 09, @03:28PM (#1429203)

      I bet there's an analogy with AI where whenever progress is made, it'll be declared as "no, not like that" followed by questioning if it will ever be invented, repeat.

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday January 09, @03:25PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 09, @03:25PM (#1429202)

    stimulated emission and absorption of gravitons

    Gets you into gravity laser or graviton laser territory.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_laser [wikipedia.org]

    https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.02762 [arxiv.org]

    Naturally, the hard sci fi types want a planet busting impressive super weapon but IRL they'll be lucky to make it work at all and maybe it might make a cool sensor. The linked post / article seems an interesting application of the general idea of controlling the gravitons and "excited states" and so forth.

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