Physicists have come up with the most accurate atomic clock

Scientists from the University of New South Wales proposed a scheme of atomic clocks that are superior in terms of accuracy of modern analogues for several orders of magnitude. A similar scheme in the theory gives an error about one-tenth of a second for 14 billion years. For comparison, the lifetime of the universe - 13.6 billion years old.

The article will appear in the scientific zhurnalePhysical Review Letters, its summary can be found at the university, and the preprint of the paper is available at arXiv.org.

The main facility for the measurement of time, scientists suggest the use of a positive ion of thorium-229. Scientists have found that the magnetic dipole transition in the nucleus (that is, a periodic change of the magnetic state associated with the magnetic moment) in that the ion can be used for timing.

"The atomic clock uses a pendulum as an electron flying around the atomic nucleus. But we were able to show that using lasers, we can orient the electrons around the nucleus so that the pendulum will serve as a neutron in the nucleus" - leads the University of the words of one of the authors of the study of Victor Flambauma.

The physicist also added that thanks to this scheme scientists can achieve high-precision clock. In particular, this is due to the fact that neutrons are less susceptible to external influences than the electrons. Researchers predict that by the scheme at their watches will be able to ensure the accuracy of the timing up to 19 decimal places.

Scientists themselves have said that their hours will allow physicists to conduct experiments with incredible accuracy. Notably, in August 2011 NASA announced three projects in the program receive a Technology Demonstration Missions 175 million dollars to develop. One of the projects were on-board atomic clocks for space needs. In them, as the pendulum would be used mercury ions.