Is alpha drifting today at the 10^-19 per year level? · revision history

Revision 2

Accepted · core change · record

Changes against revision 1:

Title · changed
Revision 1: Is $\alpha$ drifting today at the $1e-19$ per year level?
Revision 2: Is $\alpha$ drifting today at the $10^{-19}$ per year level?
Plain
Two clocks whose ticking depends differently on $\alpha$ would slowly drift apart if $\alpha$ changed. So far no drift has been seen at about one part in $10^{18}$ per year.
Precise · changed · core
Revision 1: Present laboratory bounds from optical clock ratios (for example the Yb+ E3/E2 comparison) give |d ln(alpha)/dt| of order 1e-18 per year. Determine whether d ln(alpha)/dt is nonzero at the 1e-19 per year level using multi-year ratios of clocks with large differential sensitivity, including the Th-229 nuclear transition.
Revision 2: Present laboratory bounds from optical clock ratios (for example the Yb+ E3/E2 comparison) give $\left|\mathrm{d}\,\mathrm{ln}(\alpha)/\mathrm{d}t\right|$ of order $10^{-18}$ per year. Determine whether $\mathrm{d}\,\mathrm{ln}(\alpha)/\mathrm{d}t$ is nonzero at the $10^{-19}$ per year level using multi-year ratios of clocks with large differential sensitivity, including the Th-229 nuclear transition.
Settled by · changed · core
Revision 1: A multi-year ratio of a Th-229 nuclear clock (or highly charged ion clock) to an optical atomic clock with fractional uncertainty below 1e-18, analyzed for a linear drift.
Revision 2: A multi-year ratio of a Th-229 nuclear clock (or highly charged ion clock) to an optical atomic clock with fractional uncertainty below $10^{-18}$, analyzed for a linear drift.
Kind
well-posed
Answer type
yes-no
References
(empty)
Literature status
open
Status note
(empty)
Posed since
(empty)

Decisions