Another quantum leap is about to be made in the world of precision timekeeping. Physicists have now defined a key step toward realizing a nuclear clock—a device that could give the very notion of atomic-scale timekeeping a fresh new meaning. LISA Will Provide New Insights into Black Holes.
What is a Nuclear Clock?
On the other hand, nuclear clocks would work by the shifts of energy in the body of an atomic nucleus, as opposed to the basic standard atomic clocks. This little difference could bring out stunning gains in precision and stability.
The Thorium-229 Breakthrough
The key building block behind this endeavor is an isotope known as thorium-229. A team of physicists at the state-of-the-art JILA research institute in Boulder, Colorado, has measured the frequency of light that drives a particular energy transition within the nuclei of thorium-229. Their result, published in Nature, means one is a step closer to building a working nuclear clock.
How They Achieved It
The team took advantage of a highly advanced laser tool—a frequency comb. Such helped them in the detailed and very accurate study of the nuclei of thorium-229 in their search for the exact frequency that would have to be applied to the thorium-229 nuclei for it to enter the excited state, the type of tick of the nuclear clock.
Implications beyond timekeeping But exciting as the possibility for better timekeeping may be, what this research actually means goes far beyond:
Dark Matter Detection: As nuclear clocks can be very sensitive, it may be useful in the investigation of specific kinds of dark matter and thus provide a new method of probing fundamental physics.
Fundamental Forces:
The discrepancies in the ‘tick’ of nuclear clocks from that of atomic clocks provide an evidence for the tiny deviation from the fundamental forces of our universe. Portable Precision: Far stronger in construction and portable, nuclear clocks are much broader in applicability than all kinds of today’s most advanced atomic clocks.
Challenges Ahead
This outcome in no way suggests that nuclear clocks, even those in existence now, surpass the capabilities of the best atomic ones. The scientists are working on ways of holding the thorium-229 atoms better and improving the laser systems to excite them.
Time in the Future
Thus, the era of timekeeping that this had started was rather recent; the advance represented by the nuclear clocks would be seen to be much greater than an increment of improvement. They might lead us to new frontiers in precision measurement, enabling a view into the light and functioning of our universe. These nuclear clocks might just bring forth a new act in our effort to measure and understand time.
