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Despite keeping us grounded and distorting light traveling through space, gravity is actually a fairly weak force. The smaller the mass, the less the gravitational pull, until it is no force at all at the quantum scale.
Now, physicists in England and Europe have measured a small—but obvious—gravitational pull on a tiny mass, making it the smallest mass ever to show signs of gravity, a force that has puzzled physicists for centuries. team research published Today in Science Advances.
“We have successfully measured gravitational signals at the smallest mass ever recorded, which means we are finally one step closer to understanding how it comes together,” said Tim Fuchs, a physicist at the University of Southampton and lead author of the study. Works.” University Release. “From here we will start to reduce the source using this technology until we reach the quantum world on both sides.”
The two areas of physics, quantum mechanics and Newtonian gravity, do not appear to be connected. at least not yet. The quantum realm is where the principles of classical physics break down. The laws that govern our universe do not apply to those small masses. But understanding how the gravitational force manifests at the quantum scale – whether in a loop of fields, in a vibrating string, or by some other means – can shed light on some of the most complex questions in physics.
“By understanding quantum gravity, we can solve some of the mysteries of our universe – like how it began, what happens inside a black hole, or unifying all the forces into one big theory,” Fuchs said.
To make their measurements, the team placed a 0.000015 ounce (0.43 mg) mass in a cryostat, made up of three magnets and a glass bead. To measure its gravitational force, the team flew it into a magnetic trap made of tantalum, cooling it to slightly above absolute zero in a cryostat to make it superconducting. (To detect such a weak gravitational force, the researchers needed to make the environment as quiet as possible and reduce the speed of the test object).
They cooled the magnetic trap to 4.48 Kelvin (about -274 degrees Celsius), and used a SQUID (a superconducting quantum interference device), a quantum sensor developed by all units of the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, So that the gravitational coupling between the two can be measured. The test mass and the 2.2-pound (1 kilogram) source mass are about 3 feet apart. The team measured a drag of 30 attonewons on the test mass.
“Our new technique that uses extremely cold temperatures and instruments to isolate particle vibrations will potentially prove to be the way forward for measuring quantum gravity,” said study co-author Hendrik Ulbright, a researcher at the University of Southampton. ” Same release. “Unraveling these secrets will help us uncover more mysteries about the fabric of the universe, from the smallest particles to the grandest cosmic structures.”
New information about gravity at its peak has implications for what happens at the center of a black hole The inner workings of dense objects like neutron starsAnd this The nature of so-called dark matter, invisible stuff whose effects are only seen by gravity. By looking at the interactions of the universe’s largest objects, many new insights into such exotic physics can be gained. But looking down at similar events taking place in earthly laboratories may reveal much more.
The quantum world is strange, and we are a long way from understanding the nature of gravity beyond the limits of classical physics. But a recent experiment has drawn a new line in the sand.
More: A meta-theory of physics could explain life, the universe, computation, and much more
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