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Nuclear Clock

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Proposed nuclear clock may keep time with the universe. A proposed new time-keeping system tied to the orbiting of a neutron around an atomic nucleus could have such unprecedented accuracy that it neither gains nor loses 1/20th of a second in 14 billion years -- the age of the Universe.

Proposed nuclear clock may keep time with the universe

"This is nearly 100 times more accurate than the best atomic clocks we have now," says one of the researchers, Scientia Professor Victor Flambaum, who is Head of Theoretical Physics in the UNSW School of Physics. "It would allow scientists to test fundamental physical theories at unprecedented levels of precision and provide an unmatched tool for applied physics research. " In a paper to be published in the journal Physical Review Letters -- with US researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Nevada -- Flambaum and UNSW colleague Dr Vladimir Dzuba report that their proposed single-ion clock would be accurate to 19 decimal places. "Atomic clocks use the orbiting electrons of an atom as the clock pendulum. Kuzmich Group, Ultracold Atomic and Quantum Physics at Georgia Tech. Plan for 'nuclear clock' unveiled. First there were atomic clocks that beat at microwave frequencies.

Plan for 'nuclear clock' unveiled

Then along came optical clocks that provide higher frequency standards. Now, physicists in the US have unveiled plans to build the first “nuclear clock” that runs at still higher frequencies. And because it is based on a solid material, the team claims that such a frequency standard could be far less complicated than gas-based atomic and optical clocks – while delivering the same or better accuracy. In an atomic or optical clock, electromagnetic radiation is shone on atoms that have an electronic transition involving the absorption of radiation in a very narrow frequency range. AMO Physics.