The researchers claim that a brand new atomic clock may change the way we calculate time. In general, atomic clocks measure the length of one second with independent atoms. The latest quantum gas compression time measurement method can be more accurate than ever before. Since 1967, one second has been defined as the time it takes for a cesium electron to oscillate times.
The standard atomic clock is powered by thousands of oscillating cesium atoms, and the timing is done mainly by independent measurements. The latest atomic clock to atomic closer. In the new atomic clock, strontium atoms are squeezed into a tiny three-dimensional cube, the density of a thousand times the previous atomic clock. The newest atomic clocks use quantum gas, which has more atoms in the gas, which means that atomic oscillations will be purer and longer-lasting. This is the key to making more accurate time measurements.
Jun Ye, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said: "The biggest possibility for a three-dimensional quantum gas clock is to be able to scale up the number of atoms, which also gives great stability to the measurement. The ability to increase the number of atoms and coherence time will make this The new generation of atomic clocks is completely different from the previous version. "
Experimental data show that the new quantum gas clock accuracy of 3.5 / 1019 in two hours, making it the first atomic clock to reach this value, the accuracy of the atomic clock 20 times higher than the previous. Ye said: "This figure represents a huge breakthrough for us."
Although this research is fascinating from a scientific point of view, one of the key points you may wonder: why do we try to measure a second more accurately? In fact, many scientific research ideas depend on our accurate measurement of time. Nicola Poli of the University of Florence's Precision Metrology team said: "Even if you do not perceive time from our human activities, you should know that we are in fact living in a four-dimensional world where time is one of the coordinates."
Time expansion is a kind of influence proposed by Einstein's general theory of relativity. In essence gravity will affect people's perception of the passage of time. The reason we can not feel it on Earth is that this effect is small, but it still exists. Poli said: "Now the atomic clocks are very accurate and you can use them to measure the slight gravitational effects we experience on Earth, which opens up new possibilities for us to study the Earth itself."
Poli thinks the more accurate clock can be used for one of the biggest puzzles in the universe: why the law of gravity can not be used for quantum mechanics. Poli said: "I think the future need to create a precise clock to explore gravity itself, I mean the future with ultra-accurate atomic clock to explore the interaction between quantum mechanics and gravitation.This is one of the most explored fields in physics, And any discovery in this area will be a breakthrough. "
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