The team described its findings in Nature two years ago.Īnother team took a different approach. Thirolf and his colleagues estimated the energy by measuring electrons that the nucleus emitted when it jumped between levels. This is a crucial step toward building a thorium nuclear clock. Scientists recently pinpointed how much energy a thorium-229 nucleus needs to make the jump. The energy levels are so close, in fact, that a laser might be able to set off the jump. It has a pair of nuclear energy levels that are close together. There is a variety of the element known as thorium-229. She is a theoretical physicist at the University of Delaware in Newark. “A freak-of-nature thing,” Marianna Safronova said in a June 2 talk at the meeting. For most nuclei, that would require higher energy light than normal lasers can achieve. Typical lasers can’t access nuclear-energy levels. She says that suggests nuclear clocks “would be more stable and more accurate.”īut there’s a problem. An atom’s nucleus isn’t as affected by stray electric or magnetic fields as the atom’s electrons are. She works at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.
Nuclear clocks would rely on jumps of those particles instead of electrons.Īdriana Pálffy is a theoretical physicist. Protons and neutrons within an atom’s nucleus also occupy energy levels. Imagine using the rate at which waves wash up on a beach to keep track of time. That frequency serves as a highly precise timekeeper. Only light of a certain frequency will make the electrons jump. Frequency is the rate at which those waves pass by. Light is made up of electromagnetic waves. Explainer: How lasers make ‘optical molasses’ And the laser’s light must be just right. To bump electrons in an atom from one energy level to another, the clock’s atoms must be hit with a laser. Electrons in atoms can carry only certain amounts of energy, in specific energy levels. They tally time using the energy jumps of electrons. He spoke at an online meeting of the American Physical Society.Ĭurrently, the most precise clocks are atomic clocks. Thirolf works at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany. Nuclear clocks could allow new tests of fundamental ideas in physics.
But “it’s not just about timekeeping,” physicist Peter Thirolf said June 3. Clocks based on atomic nuclei could be 10 times as precise as today’s most exact clocks.īetter clocks could improve technologies such as GPS navigation. That’s where protons and neutrons are found. Some scientists believe the first of these could debut in a few years.Īt the center of each atom is a nucleus. These clocks would keep time based on the physics of atoms’ hearts. If physicists can build them, nuclear clocks would be a brand-new type. Nuclear clocks could be the GOAT: Greatest of all timepieces.
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