On 08/24/2010 12:16 AM, Chris Howard wrote:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/sun-082310.html "It's a mystery that presented itself unexpectedly: The radioactive decay of some elements sitting quietly in laboratories on Earth seemed to be influenced by activities inside the sun, 93 million miles away." Any implication for CS clocks?
Way to early to tell. Remember that CS clocks does not use the radioactive isotope of Cesium. It uses the outer electron of the Cesium atoms and the hyper-fine energy-levels. However, the magnetic coupling is both known and explicitly used.
Whatever the mechanism is, it will affect the nucleus state one way or another, and it would not be too far-fetched that we could see the same effect on atomic clocks as the nucleus state is part of the equation for hypefine levels. If there is an effect and to what degree would take many years of research to fine out.
Cheers, Magnus _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
