Department Colloquium | A Nuclear Clock

Lasers and quantum science have fueled revolutionary developments in atomic, molecular, and fundamental physics. Scaling up quantum systems to ever increasing sizes promises to open new discovery opportunities. Quantum technology has brought tens of thousands of atoms to minute-long coherence times for atomic clocks, and it is now also knocking on the door of nuclear physics. The combination of ultrafast optics and precision metrology has built us new tools such as a vacuum ultraviolet frequency comb, enabling the recent breakthrough of quantum-state-resolved laser spectroscopy of thorium-229 nuclear transition. This unification of precision metrology and nuclear physics sparks new ideas for testing fundamental physics and promises nuclear-based clock with billions of nuclear absorbers.