Laser Excitation Of Th-229 Nucleus: New Findings Suggest Classical Quantum Physics and Nuclear Physics Can Be Combined
30th April 2024
Physicists have been hoping for this moment for a long time: For many years, scientists all around the world have been searching for a very specific state of thorium atomic nuclei that promises revolutionary technological applications. It could be used, for example, to build a nuclear clock that could measure time more precisely than the best atomic clocks available today. It could also be used to answer completely new fundamental questions in physics—for example, the question of whether the constants of nature are actually constant or whether they change in space and time.
Now this hope has come true: The long-sought thorium transition has been found, and its energy is now known exactly. For the first time, it has been possible to use a laser to transfer an atomic nucleus into a state of higher energy and then precisely track its return to its original state.