Technology

59374 readers

7248 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

164

The First Nuclear Clock Will Test if Fundamental Constants Change (www.quantamagazine.org)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

An ultra-precise measurement of a transition in the hearts of thorium atoms gives physicists a tool to probe the forces that bind the universe.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (15 children)

So, I'm not quite sure I understand. I know that they use CZM atoms for atomic clocks, and they are extremely accurate. So, will this be used for atomic clocks, too? Or is it more accurate? Or is this for something totally different entirely? It appears to me as though this is something different entirely. But I don't see why it could not be used for an atomic clock if it's even more accurate than Seism.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

The Idaho researchers observed that reversing the intrinsic angular momentum, or “spin,” of thorium-229’s outermost neutron seemed to take 10,000 times less energy than a typical nuclear excitation. The neutron’s altered spin slightly changes both the electromagnetic and strong forces, but those changes happen to cancel each other out almost exactly. Consequently, the excited nuclear state barely differs from the ground state. Lots of nuclei have similar spin transitions, but only in thorium-229 is this cancellation so nearly perfect.

Basically, thorium-229 can be excited by conventional lasers instead of gamma rays. Instead of millions of electron volts, it takes less than 10, which means it’s more reliable and more precise.

load more comments (14 replies)