LIGO is one of the two main instruments for detecting gravitational waves. He is able to track
Gravitational waves - changes in gravitationalfields spreading like waves. They are emitted by moving masses, but after radiation they break away from them and exist independently of these masses. Mathematically related to the perturbation of the space-time metric and can be described as “ripples of space-time”.
The LIGO project itself is severalobservatories located thousands of kilometers away, in each of which laser beams move along an L-shaped vacuum tube, being reflected by mirrors. The interference of these rays makes it possible to notice the slightest change in the size of the arms caused by the passage of invisible gravity waves.
And recently, scientists from the LIGO collaboration were ablepractically rid such a mirror of thermal noise by cooling it almost to absolute zero. According to them, this is the first time that a macroscopic body has been cooled almost to the ground energy state, in which the movement of particles stops.
In order to cool the object, scientists set upthe operation of the installation so that it records the slightest shifts of one of the two mirrors and automatically tries to suppress them with the help of electromagnets attached to the reverse side of the reflecting surface. As a result, the mirror cooled down to –273.15 ° С and became almost completely motionless.
It is expected that this will increase the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave observatory, as well as improve the quality of experiments to study the manifestations of quantum physics in the macrocosm.
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