"New Experiment Aims to Detect Gravitons and Unravel Gravity's Mystery"
The Universe operates under four fundamental forces— gravity, strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces . While we have understood the particles governing most of these forces, the mysterious graviton , thought to explain gravity, remains elusive. But that might change soon. It’s thought that gravity consists of minute quantum building blocks called gravitons, but so far they have been too elusive to observe. A new result from Pikovski’s Research Group now shows that next-generation quantum sensors can catch a single one. A team of researchers, led by Professor Igor Pikovski from the Stevens Institute of Technology, is testing a revolutionary method to detect individual gravitons using a quantum sensor combined with an acoustic resonator. Inspired by previous gravitational wave detections from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), this new method aims to identify the building block of gravity. Portrait of Newton in 1702, painted by Godfrey Kneller. Credit: Na...