MIT's extremely precise new atomic clock can help detect dark matter

[Judi Lynn]

Researchers from MIT invent a highly accurate clock using quantum entanglement that can lead to new physics.
PAUL RATNER
19 December, 2020

Scientists from MIT create a new, extremely precise atomic clock that uses quantum entanglement.

researchers employed ytter ms and lasers for their technique.

The wide-ranging applications of the accuracy of these clocks can aid in the search for dark matter and new physics.

MIT scientists designed a new kind of atomic clock that is not only more precise, but can help detect dark matter and gravitational waves. The researchers hope that their new clock, which uses atoms in a state of quantum entanglement, can lead to the discovery of new physics.

Atomic clocks are known as the most accurate in existence. They utilize lasers to keep tabs on the vibrations of oscillating atoms, which move back and forth with regular frequency like tiny synchronized pendulums swinging back and forth. Cesium atoms, most often used in atomic clocks, have come to define what we consider a second, which is the time it takes for 9,192, 631,770 cycles of the standard Cesium-133 transition.

Atomic clocks are so good that if they were running from the first moments of our universe, they'd only go off by just half a second up to now, as the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) press release explains. While such precision is already quite remarkable, scientists are making efforts to make these clocks even more accurate, banking that an improvement in sensitivity could lead to the detection of new particles and understanding better the nature and effects of time.

More:
https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/mit-atomic-clock-dark-matter?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2

[mobeau69]

1. Amazing to me. Thanks.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. The researchers employed ytterbium atoms and lasers for their technique.

Strange copy/paste elision in second bullet point.