First Thorium Nuclear Clocks Built Independently in Vienna and Beijing
Researchers in Vienna and Beijing have independently built the first nuclear clocks based on thorium nuclei oscillations. The clocks are precise enough to lose about a second over millions of years, though they do not yet match the best atomic clocks. The findings were published in Nature.
The first nuclear clocks will not immediately replace the worldwide network of atomic clocks that provides GPS and defines the second. Nor have they set the record for the most precise timepiece. The best atomic clocks are about 10,000 times more reliable and would take more than 100 billion years to lose one second, The New York Times reported.
Nuclear clocks nonetheless hold a range of potential advantages over existing atomic clocks. They could one day be more reliable than the leading atomic versions, and they could be made more portable.
They also offer the ability to search for certain kinds of dark matter. Dark matter is the invisible material whose clumps make up 83 percent of the matter in the universe. If a particle of dark matter passed through the thorium nuclei, it could register as a wobble in the nuclear clock's otherwise steady ticktock.
The findings have been published in the journal Nature. Slashdot reported the development, citing The New York Times. The two clocks were built independently, one by researchers in Vienna and one by researchers in Beijing.