Physicists are one step closer to developing a clock based on energy shifts in atomic nuclei.

A link to the preprint. I’ll do the actual math on how many transitions/second it works out to later and edit.

I’ve had an eye on this for like a decade, so I’m hyped.

Edit:

So, because of the structure of the crystal the atoms are in, it actually has 5 resonances. These were expected, although a couple other weak ones showed up as well. They give a what I understand to be a projected undisturbed value of 2,020,407,384,335.(2) KHz.

Then a possible redefinition of the second could be “The time taken for 2,020,407,384,335,200 peaks of the radiation produced by the first nuclear isomerism of an unperturbed 229Th nucleus to pass a fixed point in space.”

  • Thavron
    8·
    4 months ago

    Japan Rail is holding their breath, this clock might finally be precise enough to guarantee their train schedules.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
      2·
      4 months ago

      They need to get one before someone do. They will have none of those people lodging complaint that the train is slow by 2 nanosecond.