1303.6083 (Martin Fraas)

An analysis of the stationary operation of atomic clocks    [PDF]

Martin Fraas

We develop an abstract model of atomic clocks that describes the full dynamics of repeated synchronization of a classical oscillator with a quantum reference. We then focus on the stationary state of the model, in particular its dependence on the control scheme, the interrogation time and the stability of the oscillator. Control schemes are classified by autocorrelations of the frequency before and after the synchronization. This provides a one-parameter family of stationary states that differ in variance of the frequency, yet produce an equally good clock time. Formally, this is a consequence of a novel Cramer-Rao type inequality. We also derive an optimal interrogation time and show that it is determined by the balance between the dissipation of the oscillator and the information gained from the synchronization.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.6083