All articles tagged with #gravitons
Physicist Ralf Schützhold proposes an experiment to manipulate gravitational waves using light, potentially enabling the transfer of energy between light and gravitational waves and providing insights into the quantum nature of gravity, building on the principles of interferometry similar to LIGO.
An international team of scientists, led by researchers from Nanjing University, has provided the first experimental evidence hinting at the existence of gravitons, theoretical particles that mediate the force of gravity. By exciting electrons in a semiconductor under extreme conditions, the team observed behavior consistent with predictions about gravitons, marking a significant step towards bridging the gap between quantum mechanics and general relativity. This discovery, published in the journal Nature, opens new avenues for the search for gravitons in laboratory settings and could lead to new insights into the fundamental forces governing the universe.
Physicists are exploring the concept of a "dark dimension" within the framework of string theory to explain the minuscule value of the cosmological constant and the potential emergence of lightweight, weakly interacting particles. This theory posits the existence of dark gravitons, which could serve as candidates for dark matter and have implications for the distribution of galaxies. While the idea is intriguing, some physicists remain skeptical, but upcoming experiments, including cosmological surveys and laboratory tests, may provide evidence to support or refute the dark dimension hypothesis and shed light on the nature of dark matter and the forces of gravity.
Gravitational waves, which have been observed and confirmed by experiments like LIGO, are believed to exhibit wave-like behavior. However, in order to fully understand their nature, scientists need to determine if they also exhibit particle-like behavior, known as wave-particle duality. While gravitational waves are expected to be composed of gravitons, the hypothetical particles that mediate the force of gravity, detecting the particle aspect of gravitational waves remains a challenge. Current gravitational wave detectors do not have the necessary sensitivity to probe the quantum effects that may arise during black hole mergers. Theorists are working on calculating these effects, while experimentalists are designing tests to explore the quantum nature of gravitational waves.