Back in 2015, the two detectors that make up the experiment called LIGO detected gravitational waves generated by two merging black holes. And now, some researchers believe they can build instruments that can detect gravitational waves even LIGO can’t see — instruments that would be small enough to fit on a table top.
Though the device is yet to be built, researchers believe a device like this that’s as small as 1 meter long could reveal low frequency gravitational waves. The proposed device would use nanoscale diamonds with defects, called nitrogen-vacancy centers or NV centers.
Find out more about how this new tech will work and how it might help us study the quantum character of gravity in this Elements.