The unit of time: present and future directions

TL;DR

This paper reviews the evolution of the unit of time from Earth-based motions to atomic and optical standards, highlighting recent advances, applications, and future redefinition prospects of the SI second.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the progress in atomic and optical frequency standards and discusses potential redefinition of the SI second based on these standards.

Findings

Atomic time realization now approaches fractional accuracy of 10^{-16}.

Optical frequency standards have achieved fractional uncertainties of 10^{-18}.

Progress enables new scientific and societal applications of atomic frequency standards.

Abstract

Some 50~years ago, physicists, and after them the entire world, started to found their time reference on atomic properties instead of motions of the Earth that have been in use since the origin. Far from being an arrival point, this decision marked the beginning of an adventure characterized by a 6 orders of magnitude improvement in the uncertainty of realization of atomic frequency and time references. Ever progressing atomic frequency standards and time references derived from them are key resources for science and for society. We will describe how the unit of time is realized with a fractional accuracy approaching $10^{-16}$ and how it is delivered to users via the elaboration of the international atomic time. We will describe the tremendous progress of optical frequency metrology over the last 20~years which led to a novel generation of optical frequency standards with fractional uncertainties of $10^{-18}$. We will describe work toward a possible redefinition of the SI second based on such standards. We will describe existing and emerging applications of atomic frequency standards in science.