维也纳和北京团队成功研制首台钍-229核钟

维也纳和北京的研究团队各自独立成功建造了世界上首批核时钟，基于钍-229同位素的光学核钟技术，并配备反馈回路系统12。这项突破通过测量钍-229原子核的压缩和解压来实现计时2，代表了精密计时领域的重大进展。该成果已于周三发表在《自然》杂志上2。

这些核时钟具有极高的精度，数百万年才会损失一秒2。虽然当前核时钟的精度约比最佳原子钟低10000倍——原子钟精度为1000亿年才损失一秒2——但这项技术仍展现了核钟领域的巨大潜力。核时钟可能被用于搜索某些类型的暗物质2。

Research teams in Vienna and Beijing have independently built the first nuclear clocks based on thorium-229 isotopes, marking a major breakthrough in precision timekeeping technology 12. These devices operate by measuring the compression and decompression of thorium-229 atomic nuclei to keep time 2.

The nuclear clocks achieve remarkable accuracy, losing only one second over millions of years 2. While the best existing atomic clocks lose one second every 100 billion years, the new nuclear clocks are currently approximately 10,000 times less precise 2. The findings were published in Nature on Wednesday 2.

Beyond timekeeping applications, these nuclear clocks have potential uses in searching for certain types of dark matter, which comprises 83 percent of the universe 2. The development of optical nuclear clock technology with integrated feedback loop systems represents a crucial step forward for this emerging field 1.