Saitama, Could 12 (News On Japan) –
The present world customary for measuring time relies on the oscillation of cesium atoms. Its margin of error—only one second each 60 million years—might sound sufficiently exact, however for one Japanese physicist, it’s not sufficient.
Physicist Hidetoshi Katori of the College of Tokyo is growing a brand new timekeeping system with unprecedented accuracy: a margin of error of only one second in 30 billion years. This breakthrough in time measurement may have implications past timekeeping, doubtlessly contributing to the prediction of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Katori’s work is a part of Japan’s broader push to pioneer next-generation industrial infrastructure. In a particular interview, author Hideo Aiba explores the implications of ultra-precise time in shaping future societies.
Correct timing underpins trendy applied sciences. Due to GPS satellites, we will decide the placement of individuals and automobiles inside a margin of just some meters. This stage of accuracy is made potential by extraordinarily exact clocks aboard satellites—clocks that presently outline the world customary, drifting just one second each 60 million years.
But Katori believes humanity should purpose even greater. His objective is to measure time so precisely that even over twice the age of the universe—roughly 30 billion years—the system would stay off by not more than a single second.
The potential purposes are revolutionary. For instance, by measuring tiny variations in time attributable to gravitational variations, clocks may someday be used to measure elevation extra precisely than conventional strategies. This idea, utilizing time to find out top, may type the idea of next-generation social infrastructure.
The setting for this breakthrough analysis is RIKEN’s analysis heart in Saitama Prefecture. There, Katori and his staff are growing Japan’s first essentially new clock—one which makes use of atoms of strontium as a substitute of cesium.
Whereas cesium atomic clocks measure the frequency of microwave radiation absorbed by cesium atoms, Katori’s optical lattice clock makes use of laser gentle to lure strontium atoms in a grid-like construction. Inside this optical lattice, the atoms are bombarded with laser gentle to measure their oscillation.
Astonishingly, the strontium atoms—usually invisible to the human eye—will be made to seem as floating dots. Every of those dots incorporates round 10 million atoms, and they’re held nonetheless by lasers for exact measurement.
The important thing distinction lies in frequency. Cesium clocks function at about 9 billion cycles per second. Strontium-based optical clocks, against this, function at round 400 trillion cycles per second—4 to 5 orders of magnitude greater. This exponential leap allows way more exact time measurement.
The present cesium clocks have a precision stage of 10⁻¹⁵, akin to a one-second error each 60 million years. Katori’s strontium optical lattice clock reaches a precision of 10⁻¹⁸, decreasing that error to only one second each 30 billion years.
And even that’s not the tip objective. Katori continues to push for even higher precision, believing that ultra-accurate timekeeping will unlock solely new capabilities in science, geophysics, and society at giant.
Supply: テレ東BIZ
