A new gravity sensor used atoms’ weird quantum behavior to peer underground
Such devices promise to be more accurate and stable in the long run than other gravity probes
The best way to find buried treasure may be with a quantum gravity sensor.
In these devices, free-falling atoms reveal subtle variations in Earth’s gravitational pull at different places. Those variations reflect differences in the density of material beneath the sensor — effectively letting the instrument peer underground. In a new experiment, one of these machines teased out the tiny gravitational signature of an underground tunnel, researchers report in the Feb. 24 Nature.
“Instruments like this would find many, many applications,” says Nicola Poli, an experimental physicist at the University of Florence, who coauthored a commentary on the study in the same issue of Nature.