14.10.2019

'Thorium Nuclear Clock' wins ERC Synergy Grant

The research project Thorium Nuclear Clock, headed by Thorsten Schumm at the TU Wien, wins a Synergy Grant by the European Council (ERC) and thus 13,8 Millionen Euros' funding.

Thorsten Schumm will conduct the project „Thorium Nuclear Clock“ and carry it out together with Ekkehard Peik (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, D), Marianna Safronova (University of Delaware, USA) and Peter Thirolf (Ludwig-Maximilian Universität München, D). Further members of their team are Adriana Pàlffy-Buß (Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, D) and Johannes Weitenberg (Fraunhofer ILT in cooperation with Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Advanced Photon Sources, D).

The researchers' ambition is it to develop a scientific clock that reaches a much higher precision compared to the best clocks that are operated today in some of the world’s finest laboratories. While such clocks use the electrons of an atom as the “pendulum”, the Thorium Nuclear Clock project uses the nucleus of a very special atom – Thorium-229 – for setting the rhythm. Once they get their clock working, they claim it can be employed aboard navigation satellites, it can help to synchronize networks, and it might lead astronomers to a better understanding of the universe.

 

 

For more information see:

https://www.nuclock.eu/

https://www.tuwien.at/tu-wien/aktuelles/news/news/erc-synergy-grant-der-weg-zur-besten-uhr-der-welt/

https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2019-synergy-grants-results

https://www.ffg.at/news/erc-vier-synergy-grants-mit-oesterreich

 

 

European Research Council (ERC) mit einem ERC Synergy Grant gefördert, dotiert mit 13,8 Millionen Euro.

Navigation


Contact


ESQ Office
Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)
Atena Zalbeik-Dormayer
Boltzmanngasse 5
1090 Vienna
office(at)esq-quantum.at


Imprint

Data Protection