Which are the Most Accurate Clock?

If there is a universal predicate of the most accurate clock, would be pinned to the atomic clock. Clocks with advanced technology that utilizes electromagnetic waves is measured to track the atomic vibrations.

Atomic clock atomic version of the old track are vibrating at microwave frequencies, while the latest generation of optical frequencies using a lot faster. While the microwave atomic clock can be customized with satellite transmission, not so with an optical atomic clock. Signal from the satellite transmission was too noisy for an atomic clock based on optical frequencies.

Atomic clock comparison via data highways (artwork). (Picture from: http://idw-online.de/)

Now a new record for the transmission of the atomic clock has been set. This achievement, which involves an optical fiber along more than 900 kilometers, could pave the way for a global network adjustment and testing of fundamental physics.

Katharina Predehl. (Picture
from: http://www.mpq.mpg.de/)

Katharina Predehl of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, and his associates send a laser signal from an optical atomic clock of the German National Metrology Institute in Braunschweig to their recipients at the Max Planck Institute. Distance of the two cities about 600 miles.

The result, the uncertainty of the frequency of the signal that comes only by 4 x 10^-19 seconds, or about 1,000 times more accurate than the signal transmitted by satellite methods. This means two optical atomic clock can be synchronized from a distance.

This latest trial is enough to beat the previous record, the laser signal transmitted through the optical fiber along the 146 kilometers that stretches over 70 kilometers.

A laser-generated frequency sent between Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) could sync two optical clocks. (Picture from: http://spectrum.ieee.org/)

For this result, Predehl suggested that this optical clock networks used throughout the world. "It was our dream," she said, a few days ago. Now talk about the network clock in Europe are in the process.

According to Predehl, although the network clock is not always affect the timeliness of everyday life, the existence of an accurate clock is important to measure potential changes in fundamental physics constants or simply to test general relativity. "Although it is still accepted today, Einstein's relativity theory might be damaged if it is measured more accurately," she said. *** [NEWSCIENTIST | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 3868]

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