The most accurate clock in the world will lose less than 1 second every 40 billion years, or around three times the current age of the universe. While we have no direct need for such extreme timekeeping, the clock could help investigations in multiple areas of physics, including detecting dark matter.
At the core of the clock, built by at the University of Colorado Boulder and his colleagues, are about 40,000 strontium atoms, cooled by lasers to only about a hundred-billionth of a degree warmer than absolute zero.
The clock鈥檚 tick is provided by the electrons within these chilly atoms oscillating rapidly between two specific quantum states. To achieve this, the team shielded the atoms from outside interference, like room temperature objects in the lab, producing oscillations that Aeppli says are accurate to eight parts in a tenth of a billionth of a billionth, or less than 1 second in 40 billion years. 鈥淲e鈥檙e playing a bunch of tricks to make it the most accurate clock we possibly can,鈥� says Aeppli.
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Indeed, the new clock is twice as accurate as any previous atomic clock. 鈥淭his is like when someone sets a new world record for [running] the mile or the marathon. It鈥檚 really, really impressive and it takes a huge amount of work,鈥� says at the University of California, Berkeley. He says that while the new clock may not immediately lead to new physics discoveries, the researchers鈥� careful examination of all the possible sources of inaccuracy in their experiment sets a standard for all atomic clocks and will push the whole field forward.
Eventually, extremely accurate atomic clocks could play a part in detecting dark matter, making GPS satellites more precise and helping to spot minute movements of tectonic plates. 鈥淲henever you make better measurements of time, that opens up so many new things you can study in physics,鈥� says Aeppli.
arXiv
