Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
A Gravitational Wave Telescope with Kill ten birds with one stone.
Yuta Michimura, Associate Professor, Research Center for the Early Universe (RESCEU)
I accepted this article casually, but when I thought about it, I realized that I was just doing "physics + physics to ∞ physics". I was in trouble. It doesn't seem like a fusion of different fields. For now, I would like to talk about how I am conducting various experiments by making effective use of experimental apparatuses that were originally designed for other purposes.
When I was an undergraduate student, I filled up my class schedule from 1st to 6th period every day and took as many after-hours seminars as I could, so that I could make the most of my time at the university. Because of my cynicism, I did not make any friends, but I enjoyed the lectures and loved the university. When I was assigned to a laboratory and began to talk to people seriously, I realized that there were amazing people around me, not only my peers but also my seniors and juniors. Since then, I have conducted my research with the motto, "If I don't understand something after thinking about it for five minutes, I will ask someone else," and "If I can't do something, I will ask someone else to do it. Therefore, none of the research presented below was the result of a sudden flash of inspiration that came to me while thinking alone. All of them are collaborative research that could not be done by a single person and may take years to complete, which is why they are so rewarding.
Gravitational waves are phenomena that propagate as waves due to space-time distortions caused by black holes and neutron star mergers. The distortions are so small that the first gravitational wave detected in 2015 stretched the length of a 4 km laser interferometer called LIGO in the United States by only 10-18 m. Since the first detection, gravitational waves have been observed one after another, revealing a picture of the universe never before seen by humankind.
Although gravitational wave telescopes were originally designed to observe gravitational waves, these extreme distance measuring instruments can be used for a variety of other experiments. For example, they can be used to search for dark matter, which is an unknown substance in the universe. In particular, the authors are searching for vector fields, in which mirrors are shaken by an unknown force, and axion fields, which change the polarization of laser light. We can also use laser interferometry to test whether the several 10 kg mirrors of LIGO and Japan's KAGRA are in a state of quantum entanglement, and whether we can see pixel noise from the quantization of space, thereby approaching the theory of quantum gravity. It is also interesting from a thermodynamic point of view to investigate the thermal oscillations in such a non-equilibrium steady state, since the KAGRA mirror has a temperature gradient to cool it.
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| Laser interferometry on a gravitational wave telescope can capture all kinds of "waves | |||
The above examples are all examples of how a gravitational wave telescope can be used effectively to kill two birds with one stone or more, since they can be used at the same time as gravitational wave observations. However, in my limited experience, I have never been able to get anyone to say, "Hey, I've got this great piece of equipment, can't you use it for something? I have a good device that I would like to do something like this. I'd like to do something like this. It is important to listen to people who say, "I want to do something like this, is there any good way? The best way is not always to use a gravitational wave telescope. And new collaborations usually start with a bit of pleasant banter. I would like to express my gratitude for the free research environment and playful research colleagues.
The attraction of gravitational wave research is that the instruments themselves are also very interesting, while the astronomy and physics using gravitational waves alone are quite interesting. Why don't you play with a gravitational wave telescope?
The Research Center for the Early Universe conducts a wide range of research, not only in gravitational wave astronomy and physics, but also in trying to kill two or more birds with one stone with a gravitational wave telescope. In addition, the author participates in the research project "What is the Nature of Dark Matter? -A Comprehensive Study of the Vast Discovery Space," in which the author participates. Various other members from the Graduate School of Science are also participating in this project to make effective use of the existing state-of-the-art facilities.
Faculty of Science News, July 2024