Quantum technologies for gravitational wave detection

Speaker: Nergis Mavalvala, MIT

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2015. Since then dozens more astrophysical observations have been confirmed. To detect these spacetime ripples requires measurement with sub-attometer precision. I will describe the quantum technologies that make such a measurement possible, enabling present and future discoveries.