Speaker
Description
How do we know what time it is—and how can we ensure that a second measured today will be the same tomorrow, or on the other side of the world? Modern timekeeping answers these questions by tying time to the fundamental properties of atoms, achieving a level of precision that underpins both advanced technologies and fundamental physics.
In this talk, I will describe how atomic clocks are used to realize official time in Canada and the role of the National Research Council’s Frequency and Time Group in generating and maintaining the national timescale. I will outline how national timescales are linked through international comparisons to form International Atomic Time (TAI), and how successive generations of atomic clocks have steadily improved accuracy and stability.
Finally, I will review current international efforts toward a redefinition of the SI second. With optical atomic clocks now surpassing caesium-based standards by more than two orders of magnitude, this redefinition represents a significant step in the evolution of time measurement, with important implications for metrology and emerging technologies.
| Keyword-1 | atomic clocks |
|---|---|
| Keyword-2 | timescales |
| Keyword-3 | redefinition of the second |