Posted on by Mark Thompson

If Gravitons Exist, this Experiment Might Find Them

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.

There are four fundamental forces in the Universe; strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravity. Quantum theory explains three of the four through the interaction of particles but science has yet to discover a corresponding particle for gravity. Known as the ‘graviton’, the hypothetical gravity particle is thought to constitute gravitational waves but it hasn’t been detected in gravity wave detector. A new experiment hopes to change that using an acoustic resonator to identify individual gravitons and confirm their existence. 

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