Lutetium Atomic Clock’s Reported Accuracy Sets New Record

Comparing two clocks for two hundred hours

ScienceAlert reports that researchers built two atomic clocks based on lutetium and compared them after adjustments for general relativity because the clocks were not in exactly the same place. The report says their differences were effectively zero during 200 hours of measurements collected over 12 days.

The report compares the clock with previous recorded performance, but provides no separate numerical baseline beyond describing the new result as about four times better.

The researchers’ reported lutetium-clock result has an uncertainty below one ten-billion-billionth of a second, described as roughly four times better than previously recorded performance.

If the reported performance holds, the clock could provide a highly precise reference for physics studies, including measurements of changes in gravity across Earth. The team also plans to miniaturize the lab-scale system for transportable testing and potential applications such as underground magma monitoring.