CPC Seminar: Photon Counting Interferometry to Detect Geontropic Space-Time Fluctuations with GQuEST

  • Oct. 14, 2024, 2:00 pm US/Central
  • Curia II
  • Sander Vermeulen, Caltech
  • Joshua Sobrin (Host), jsobrin@fnal.gov

New approaches to finding a theory of quantum gravity, based on the holographic principle, consistently predict the existence of quantum fluctuations of space-time. The GQuEST experiment uses a new experimental technique, called ‘photon counting interferometry’, that allows laser interferometers to measure individual photons that have been produced by the space-time fluctuation signal, while disregarding noise photons. This technique manifestly provides sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit that interferometers are subject to, and outperforms quantum squeezing. Our experiment could make the first detection of a quantum gravity signal, or if we see no signal, it will rule out a range of quantum gravity theories.