The Nuclear Clock: Scaling Quantum Systems for Precision Metrology

Jun Ye discusses how laser science and increasingly large coherent quantum systems are expanding precision measurement into nuclear physics. Experiments now maintain coherence in thousands of atoms for minutes and resolve quantum states of the thorium-229 nuclear transition. A vacuum-ultraviolet frequency comb enables coherent excitation of that transition and connects its frequency directly to a highly precise atomic clock. The lecture examines how this connection between atomic and nuclear measurement could support new tests of fundamental physics and nuclear clocks containing billions of absorbers, with the prospect of surpassing the timekeeping capabilities of existing atomic clocks.