Most likely, you will not be able to wear such “decoration” on your wrist, but the work of the mechanism will allow you to display not only time. Physicists have created clocks that are so accurate that they will not get lost in time over the next 15 billion years!
A new study describes the atomic clocks in which they applied an optical lattice represented by laser beams that capture ytterbium atoms. Each atom has a constant oscillation frequency, which allows scientists to measure how ytterbium atoms transition between two levels of energy, creating a “ticking” of clocks.
The researchers compared two independent atomic clockwork mechanisms to record historical benchmarks for performance using three key measurements: systematic uncertainty, stability, and reproducibility. Do not forget that the performance of the clock is limited by terrestrial gravitational effects.
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity says that gravity plays a fundamental role in time. Remember at least the water world from the film “Interstellar”, where each hour passed was equal to 7 Earth years due to a high gravity indicator. In the case of ytterbium clocks, the vibrational frequency will vary under varying degrees of severity. Scientists can use Einstein's theory to their advantage. The NIST atomic clocks become so sensitive that moving them away from the earth’s surface will cause a serious difference in performance. In practice, this means that the clock can measure not only time, but space-time.
Yeah, from such a thought begins to boil the brain. With such accuracy in theory, the clock could be used to fix cosmic phenomena, such as gravitational waves or dark matter. Scientists still do not fully know what dark matter is, but it can be seen if it affects the physical constants.
New technology will be able to make breakthroughs in space science. If all the mechanisms are scattered across the globe, then the size of the planet can be measured up to 1 cm. The clock still has to undergo tests and improvements, but the idea itself is really impressive, because one day they will be able to display the elusive dark matter of the Universe.
