Physicists from the Vienna Technological University, led by Professor Torsten Schumm in the field of quantum metrology, have achieved a significant breakthrough in the development of nuclear watches. Their research has the potential to revolutionize the understanding of the fundamental forces of the universe. The team successfully excited the core of the thorium-229 atom to a higher energy level using laser radiation, marking a pivotal moment in the field. The results of their groundbreaking work were recently published in the journal PHYSICAL ReView Letters on April 29.
This breakthrough paves the way for the production of a new type of watch that not only promises increased accuracy but also offers an opportunity to delve into the deepest realms of the universe. Unlike traditional atomic clocks that rely on electron movements around atoms and are susceptible to external disturbances, nuclear clocks will operate based on energy transitions within the nucleus of atoms, making them highly resistant to external factors.
In their quest to develop nuclear watches, scientists encountered challenges in precisely determining the energy gap required for the thorium-229 nucleus to transition between states. After years of research and experimentation, the team successfully identified the energy shift in the thorium atom, measuring it at 8.35574 electron-volts.
While the journey towards achieving nuclear timekeeping accuracy is ongoing and will likely take several more years, the observation of this critical transition holds promise for future discoveries. Nuclear watches have the potential to unlock new avenues of exploration, enabling researchers to delve into dark energy, dark matter, and the primary forces governing the cosmos with unprecedented precision. By providing accurate measurements of energy differences between related nucleus states, these watches could unveil alterations in three of the four fundamental forces of physics – electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear interaction – either in time or space.