LECTURE ON ATOMIC CLOCKS

The IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), Delhi Chapter organized a lecture on “Atomic Clocks - How do they Work and Why do we need them” by Dr. Amitava Sen Gupta at University of Delhi, South Campus, New Delhi on 14th November 2014. Two students Hitesh Kansal (16072) and Aditya Goswami (16007) from Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon attended the event.

Presently, Dr. Amitava Sen Gupta is a Scientist-H/ Outstanding Scientist and the Head of the Time & Frequency Division. Dr. Gupta did his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of Delhi, India, in 1974 and 1980, respectively. Dr. Gupta’s Ph.D. work involved experimental and theoretical studies of traveling ionosphere disturbances using satellites. He joined the CSIR–National Physical Laboratory in January 1979. Dr Sen Gupta’s research interests in the early years at NPL involved studies of upper atmosphere and VLF radio propagation studies. Subsequently, Dr. Gupta was engaged in research on extremely accurate time synchronization using the Indian domestic satellite INSAT. This work has led to the INSAT time broadcast service, which has been widely used in India.

The lecture by Dr. Amitava Sen Gupta was about need of Atomic Clocks. Dr. Sen Gupta explained that atomic clocks are a type of clocks that express the time in terms of the oscillations of the atom of certain elements and the oscillation of an atom has to be very precisely measured and then converted to the regular time, it’s the radiation that is extracted when an atom moves through the transition phase “E2-E1 = hv” as proposed by Einstein. He also talked about the evolution of the atomic clocks and evolving accuracy with the main focus devised on the Cesium fountain clock which had and accuracy of 1 second in 30 million years. Dr. Sen Gupta also explained how accuracy of time is essential in the daily lives highlighting the applications like GPS coordination, Inter Galaxy talks, measuring the Astronomical unit, reminding the fact that a 1millisecon inaccuracy can lead to a 300-400 km of error during a simple satellite-earth communication.

Dr. Amitava Sen Gupta also shared the platform with the researchers and scientists of the country. The lecture was very interactive as there was a special question hour at the end of lecture. The participants also got a chance to talk to Mr. Gupta about possibilities of enhancing the current model of atomic clock to a Quark based clock which can be considered as a further smaller and more accurate model of clock.

Some Glimpses: