"Breakthrough in Nuclear Time Race: Scientists Achieve Crucial Advancement"

Scientists, including researchers from LMU, have made significant progress in the development of nuclear clocks, which could provide a more precise measurement of time and offer insights into fundamental forces of the universe. By accurately characterizing the excitation energy of thorium-229, the element that could be used as the timekeeping component in nuclear clocks, the researchers have taken a critical step towards realizing this technology. Nuclear clocks could open up new research fields that cannot be explored with atomic clocks and have potential practical applications, such as detecting changes in the Earth's gravitational field. The first prototypes of nuclear clocks could be developed within the next decade.