You can test Einstein’s theory: The most accurate clock ever created is one second slower in 40 billion years

The authors of a new paper published on the preprint server arXiv say they have created the most accurate atomic clock in the world. IFLScience writes that their error is so small that it would take 3 times the age of the universe, or 39.15 billion years, for the clock to lose 1 second.

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Scientists at the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA, have created a device known as an optical lattice clock. It uses 40,000 strontium atoms locked in a one-dimensional lattice. Atoms maintain a temperature just one degree above absolute zero, and the ticking of this clock is a transition between the energy levels of electrons in an atom.

It would take almost 40 billion years for the most accurate clocks to lose 1 second, which is almost three times the length of the 13.8 billion-year-old Universe. Even the Sun could live four lifetimes (the lifespan of such stars is estimated to be 9-10 billion years) and that clock would still be only one second slower.

The authors of the paper have been developing optical atomic clocks for years and have achieved a level of accuracy unattainable for traditional atomic clocks using cesium atoms. Over the past few years, scientists have made progress to further improve the accuracy of this device, breaking previous records. As a result of several years of work, scientists have already managed to increase the accuracy of the clock by 10 times compared to the previous version.

Scientists believe that the level of accuracy achieved by their devices has no limits. They want to continue research to obtain measurements of time that are 10 or even 100 times more accurate. According to the authors of the article, the new clock will redefine the second, which will be based on one of these devices, and not on the best existing atomic clocks.

However, these clocks cannot only be used for the most accurate time measurements. Because of their sensitivity, scientists believe they could be used to measure the curvature of space-time.

Atomic clocks are already sensitive to relativistic effects, but optical lattice clocks are 1,000 times more sensitive, meaning they can be used to measure gravity like never before. Additionally, this watch can be used to test the theory of gravity, Einstein’s theory of relativity, with greater accuracy. But that’s not all. Scientists say these clocks can be used to study dark matter.

As I already wrote FocusPhysicists were able to explain the strange rotation of the Sun. The rotation speed of the Sun at different latitudes is different, and this has long puzzled scientists.

Moreover Focus NASA spacecraft determined the age of strange asteroids and made an unexpected discovery, NASA wrote. Scientists believe the small asteroids are more complex objects than expected.