Few things in the universe maintain a constant beat like the pulse of an atom.
However, even the most sophisticated ‘atomic’ clocks based on variations of these quantum time meters lose counts when they reach their limit.
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Physicists have known for some time that entangled atoms can help particles bond together and squeeze a little more out of each impact, but most experiments have only been able to prove this on a small scale.
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A team of researchers from the University of Oxford, UK, extended that limit to two meters (about six feet), proving that mathematics works in large spaces.
This could not only improve the overall accuracy of optical atomic clocks, but also allow comparisons in split-second timings of multiple clocks to the extent that they could represent previously undetectable signals in a variety of physical phenomena.
As the name suggests, optical atomic clocks use light to probe the movement of atoms to keep time.
Like a baby on a swing, atomic components bounce back and forth under certain constraints. All you need is a steady kick like a photon from a laser that moves your swing.
Various technologies and materials have been tested over the years to develop the technology to the point where the difference in frequency causes an error of just one second out of the 13 billion years of the universe. We need to rethink the way we measure time itself.
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As the technology matures, there is a point where the timing rules themselves become a bit vague due to the uncertainty in the quantum environment that introduces many Catch-22 situations.
For example, higher frequency light can improve accuracy, but it becomes more important as the uncertainty between the photon kick and the atomic response becomes smaller.
These problems can be solved by reading the atom multiple times. It’s not without problems.
A ‘single shot’ reading with the right type of laser pulse is ideal. Physicists know that the uncertainty of this approach can improve if the atom being measured is already decaying into another atom.
Confusion is an intuitive and strange concept. According to quantum mechanics, something cannot be said to have a value or state until it is observed.
If they were already part of a larger system (perhaps by exchanging photons with other atoms), then every part of the system would give relatively predictable results.
It’s like tossing two coins in the same wallet. It’s like knowing that when one head goes up, the other tail spins up in the air.
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The two ‘coins’ in this case were a pair of strontium ions entangled with a photon sent to a short-length optical fiber.
The test itself didn’t create a revolutionary level of precision in optical atomic clocks, but it wasn’t intended.
Instead, the team showed that by entangling the charged atoms of strontium, measurement uncertainty could be reduced under conditions that could improve accuracy in the future.
A macro distance of a few meters is not difficult to identify. It is now theoretically possible to entangle optical atomic clocks around the world to increase accuracy.
“Our results are proof of principle and the precision we have achieved is many times lower than state-of-the-art technologies, but we hope that the technologies shown here will one day improve state-of-the-art systems.” Physicist Raghavendra Srinivas says:
“Someday entanglement will be necessary because it gives way to the ultimate precision that quantum theory allows.”
Squeezing a little more confidence in each tick of an atomic clock may be
what it takes to measure the minute differences in time to produce mass at the smallest distances,
a device that leads to the quantum theory of gravity.
Outside of research, the use of entanglement to reduce uncertainty in quantum measurements is used in everything from quantum computing to cryptography and communications.
