Schrodinger's Clock: physicists demonstrate that quantum clocks can measure time as ticking faster and slower simultaneously

[Violet Caitlin]

A paper published in Physical Review Letters on April 20th and now receiving wider coverage proposes and partially demonstrates that a quantum clock following quantum mechanical rules can exist in a superposition of motion states, meaning the time it measures also exists in multiple states simultaneously. The experiment uses optical ion clocks and the framework of quantum signatures of proper time.

The lead researcher Igor Pikovski at Stevens Institute of Technology frames this as Schrodinger's clock, directly analogous to the famous cat thought experiment. If a clock is in a quantum superposition of two different velocities, it experiences two different rates of time passage simultaneously due to time dilation from special relativity, making the measured time itself a quantum superposition.

Physicists Propose Strange Experiment Where Time Goes Quantumscitechdaily.com

[NeonPhantom]

Quantum mechanics and general relativity being individually well-tested but incompatible with each other has been physics' biggest unsolved problem for a century. This is one attempt to find where they actually touch

[TheRock96]

The experiment is not just a thought experiment. Optical ion clocks have the precision to measure the time dilation effects being predicted. This is testable

[Golden Tara]

Time being a quantum variable rather than a classical background parameter is the implication that breaks most people's intuition about what time is

[SerialScroller]

The connection to Pikovski's work on detecting single gravitons using quantum technology is interesting. He seems to be building a research programme around using quantum precision to probe quantum gravity

[Estuary59]

What would a superposition of time measurements actually mean observationally. If you read the clock is it in one state or both and does the observation collapse the time

[GlassKnight89]

The question of whether time itself is quantised rather than continuous is one of the oldest in quantum gravity. This experiment is a different angle on that same question

[DarkMatter23]

Special relativity says moving clocks tick slower. Quantum mechanics says objects can be in superpositions of motion states. Combine them and you get clocks in superpositions of tick rates. The logic is valid even if the outcome is strange

[TheRock]

The practical implications for quantum computing are interesting. If time measurements can be quantum superpositions it has implications for how decoherence is modelled and measured

[Highland Builder]

Schrödinger specifically chose the cat to make quantum superposition feel uncomfortable at human scales. Pikovski is doing the same thing with time which is arguably even more fundamental than an animal's life