# Mass Defect Effects in Atomic Clocks

## TL;DR

This paper explores how the mass defect influences atomic clock frequencies, offering a new interpretation of known shifts and predicting novel effects for ion-based clocks, challenging traditional relativity-based explanations.

## Contribution

It introduces a mass defect perspective to explain frequency shifts in atomic clocks and predicts new shifts for ion-trap clocks, expanding current understanding.

## Key findings

- Gravitational and motion-induced shifts can be explained by mass defect.
- Mass defect accounts for known frequency shifts without relativity.
- New shifts are predicted for ion-trap atomic clocks.

## Abstract

We consider some implications of the mass defect on the frequency of atomic transitions. We have found that some well-known frequency shifts (gravitational shift and motion-induced shifts such as: quadratic Doppler and micromotion shifts) can be interpreted as consequences of the mass defect in quantum atomic physics, i.e., without the need for the concept of time dilation used in special and general relativity theories. Moreover, we show that the inclusion of the mass defect leads to previously unknown shifts for clocks based on trapped ions.