Nuclear clocks may be 60x as accurate as atomic counterparts, less susceptible to errors

For years, atomic clocks has been considered the most accurate devices for tracking the slow march towards obsolescence, a subatomic particle vibrating a given selection of times per second with relatively few issues. Now the reliability crown can be passed to the nuclear clock, which as well as sounding gnarly, could prove to be less prone to errors from outside stimuli. It goes like this: although an atomic clock will measure a definite collection of vibrations per second, external forces inclusive of ambient electric and magnetic fields affect the electrons utilized in atomic clocks, causing mishaps. The particles utilized in nuclear clocks which are measured for vibrations — and thus timekeeping — may be excited with a comparatively low-energy ultraviolet light, bearing in mind fewer variations from the aforementioned fields. To wit, Corey Campbell and co-workers on the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have devised a scheme that uses lasers to rigorously control the spatial orientation of the electron orbits in atoms. A nuclear clock containing a thorium nucleus controlled during this way would drift by only one second in 200 billion years, the team claims. Before nuclear clocks become a reality, researchers must identify the proper frequency of sunshine had to excite thorium nuclei; but that’s what grad students are for, right?

[Image credit: University of Colorado / Science Daily ]