Fundamental limits to Astrophysical and Terrestrial Clocks.

Supervisors
John Hartnett, Richard Dodson, Andre Luiten, Ron Burman

Contacts
John Hartnett 		www.uwa.edu.au/people/john.hartnett 
Richard Dodson 	www.uwa.edu.au/people/richard.dodson 
Andre Luiten 		www.uwa.edu.au/people/andre.luiten 
Ron Burman 		www.uwa.edu.au/people/ron.burman 

Within the scientific community there have been suggestions that we can use both pulsars and atomic clocks to define a timescale over the long term. Proponents of the astrophysical solution believe that there are some advantages to the use of pulsars, which are essentially large mechanical clocks, over the atomic approach. This project is aimed at making the first theoretical studies of the limits presented by each type of ‘clock’. Two of the supervisors of this project have recently published an examination of past observations to determine experimentally which appear to the best (See http://arxiv.org/abs/1004.0115 - accepted for publication by Revs Mod. Phys. 2010).
The idea in this honours project is to examine (theoretically) the underlying limitations on millisecond pulsars and on atomic frequency standards (particularly modern fountain and optical lattice clocks) as time keepers and their relative merits. People are interested in timescales which extend beyond 100 years for various applications. So what are some examples of limits?
In the case of pulsars one can think of gravitational waves, starquakes, accretion or electromagnetic couplings to surrounding atmospheres as some examples. In the case of atomic clocks one can think of changes in the fundamental constants or determination of the local gravitational potential as some examples.
This project is particularly relevant because pulsar observations are being used to detect long wavelength Gravitational Waves. A careful investigation of the limitations of pulsar timing accuracy will make a contribution to this area of research.
The supervisors are an interdisciplinary team from Astronomy and Frequency Standards.