Quantum goes massive
An astrophysics experiment in America has demonstrated how fundamental research in one subject area can have a profound effect on work in another as the instruments used for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) pave the way for quantum experiments on a macroscopic scale.
The work is reported in a research article published today, Thursday, 16 July, in New Journal of Physics (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society). It can be found at http://stacks.iop.org/NJP/11/073032.
LIGO is a huge experiment, funded mainly by the U.S. National Science Foundation and involving more than 600 astrophysicists worldwide, undertaken to detect gravitational waves and thereby help us monitor space through another valuable set of lenses – gravitational radiation.