Atomic clocks are off by just one second every nearly 40 billion years

The new atomic lattice clock broke the record for accuracy by missing just one second after 39.15 billion years .

Researchers created a clock with an error rate of about eight billionths of a billionths . This level of error is so small that the clock needs 3 times the age of the universe to miss one second, or 39.15 billion years, IFL Science reported on March 29. During that time, the Sun can exist and die four times.

Optical atomic clock at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. (Photo: R. Jacobson)

The device is a form of optical lattice clock , using 40,000 strontium atoms trapped in a one-dimensional lattice. The atoms are kept at a temperature nearly one degree above absolute zero, and each tick of the clock is a transition between the energy levels of electrons in the atom.

The team has been developing optical atomic clocks for many years with precision that conventional atomic clocks using cesium atoms cannot achieve. However, over the past few years, they have worked to limit the level of error and systematic effects to further improve the device's accuracy, according to lead researcher Alexander Aeppli at the University of Colorado Boulder. They hope to be able to measure time 10 times more accurately, even 100 times.

This type of clock will bring a new definition of seconds, opening up prospects for new discoveries. Atomic clocks are inherently sensitive to relativistic effects, but optical lattice clocks are 1,000 times more sensitive, meaning they could help measure gravity at unprecedented levels of detail. as a test of general relativity. The team describes the device in detail on the Arxiv database.