Optical clocks with accuracy validated at the 19th digit
Authors
K. J. Arnold
M. D. K. Lee
Zhao Qi
Qichen Qin
Zhang Zhao
N. Jayjong
M. D. Barrett
Abstract
We report a comprehensive evaluation of all known sources of systematic uncertainty for two independent $^{176}$Lu$^+$ single-ion optical references, finding total systematic uncertainty of $1.1\times10^{-19}$ and $1.4\times10^{-19}$ for the two individual systems and $9.6\times10^{-20}$ for the difference. Through direct comparison via correlation spectroscopy, we demonstrate a relative frequency agreement of $-2.4\pm(5.7)_\mathrm{stat}\pm(1.0)_\mathrm{sys}\times10^{-19}$, where `stat' and `sys' indicate the statistical and systematic uncertainty, respectively. The comparison uncertainty is statistically limited after approximately 200 hours of averaging with a measurement instability of $4.8\times10^{-16}(τ/\mathrm{s})^{-1/2}$.
