How LIGO Squeezes Light to Detect Gravity
August 27, 2025
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9:17Now PlayingHow LIGO Squeezes Light to Detect Gravity
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as posted by the channelNeil presses on LIGO’s mind-boggling sensitivity—detecting arm-length changes far smaller than a proton—then challenges whether that beats quantum limits. Nergis explains quantum squeezing: you trade uncertainty between a light wave’s amplitude and phase (Heisenberg), cranking down the noise in phase—the thing LIGO measures—while letting amplitude get noisier. No laws are broken; the instrument is engineered to isolate vibrations, operate in vacuum, bounce light ~100× per arm, and read a tiny phase mismatch at a “dark fringe,” where any leakage of light means a passing gravitational wave.
From 'When Black Holes Collide, with Nergis Mavalvala'
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