For the sake of my own understanding, is the statement
"The answer is that gravity doesn’t affect light at all, but it does affect atoms."
just a simplification for the sake of the article? I was under the impression gravity *does* affect light by warping spacetime. Is this an "indirect" effect?
You are correct that gravity can affect light through curving spacetime, but that is an effect that's observable really only at cosmological scales because that's where general relativistic effects dominate. At the small scales of quantum mechanics, these relativistic effects are much less dominant and (usually) negligible.
Not a quantum sensor, but neutrino detector (especially liquid Argon TPC types) being deployed for HEP have the ability to measure the neutrino spectrum from nuclear reactors from tens to hundreds of miles away.
Early (public) proof of principle experiments show the ability to detect when reactors are refueled or modified. So in principle, you can tell where another country's nuclear reactors are and what they are used for, in real-time, from another country.
Thanks! I think many people might not have seen quantum sensing - it isn't as famous as its more glamorous cousin quantum computing, but it can have just as big impacts
Yes, I am totally uninformed about things like that, but after reading your pieces I feel like I have a better grasp of the concepts. When you mention being able to use tech like that to find elements underground and detect nuclear weapons, that was interesting. When do you predict companies will begin to introduce those kinds of technologies to their companies?
For the sake of my own understanding, is the statement
"The answer is that gravity doesn’t affect light at all, but it does affect atoms."
just a simplification for the sake of the article? I was under the impression gravity *does* affect light by warping spacetime. Is this an "indirect" effect?
Yep it's a simplification
You are correct that gravity can affect light through curving spacetime, but that is an effect that's observable really only at cosmological scales because that's where general relativistic effects dominate. At the small scales of quantum mechanics, these relativistic effects are much less dominant and (usually) negligible.
Makes perfect sense in the context of the article. Thanks!
Not a quantum sensor, but neutrino detector (especially liquid Argon TPC types) being deployed for HEP have the ability to measure the neutrino spectrum from nuclear reactors from tens to hundreds of miles away.
Early (public) proof of principle experiments show the ability to detect when reactors are refueled or modified. So in principle, you can tell where another country's nuclear reactors are and what they are used for, in real-time, from another country.
This is my first time reading about this topic - interesting
Thanks! I think many people might not have seen quantum sensing - it isn't as famous as its more glamorous cousin quantum computing, but it can have just as big impacts
Yes, I am totally uninformed about things like that, but after reading your pieces I feel like I have a better grasp of the concepts. When you mention being able to use tech like that to find elements underground and detect nuclear weapons, that was interesting. When do you predict companies will begin to introduce those kinds of technologies to their companies?