INTER-UNIVERSITY  CENTRE  FOR  ASTRONOMY  AND  ASTROPHYSICS
(An Autonomous Institution of the University Grants Commission)

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  COLLOQUIUM

 

Prof. Subhadeep De

Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pune
 
Probing fundamental science using optical atomic clock
 
 

In present days optical atomic clocks are accurate to few parts in 1019 that corresponds to possibility of missingjust one “tick” over 34 billion years. Such clocks have beenrealized by accurate measurement of thehighly forbiddenatomic transitionfrequencies(clock transition)in the optical domain. There are two different systems: neutral atoms stored in an optical lattice and singleatomic-ion trapped in an electrodynamic trap; for experimental measurement of the clock transitions withan extreme precision. Both of these clocks use sophisticated technologies andonly few countries are able to develop them so far. Other than applications of such clocks for accurate time keeping, which is a requisite for advanced technologies such as navigation, communication, surveillance, meteorology and so on, the scientific community is always enthusiastic todevelop clocks with improved accuraciessince they are useful toreveal unanswered questions of science. The presentadvanced communication technologiestoge ther withlong-distance transfer of the optical photonsallow intercomparion of thegeographically distributedstate-of-the-art optical clocks. Such clocks and networking among themupliftour capabilitytoprobe fundamental aspects of science such as, constancy of the dimensionless fundamental constants, violation of the fundamental symmetries, geodic measurements and so on. This lecture will focusonprecision measurements using optical atomic clocks to study fundamental science.

 
Online Colloquium
July 2, 2020, 16:00 hrs.