[time-nuts] Modern Rb atomic reference vs classic Cs

[Greg Maxwell]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 8:52 PM Attila Kinali <attila at kinali.ch> wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Mar 2020 13:57:21 -0700
> Hal Murray <hmurray at megapathdsl.net> wrote:
>
> > Can the physics-nuts calculate the Rb frequency relative to Cs?
>
> Theoretically yes, practically no. While we "know" exactly what
> each electron in the atom is doing and how it interacts with each
> other electron and the nucleus, there are so many of them that there
> is no closed form solution (c.f. three/many body problem). As far
> as I am aware of, nobody has even done a complete numerical model.
> So all the calculations we have today are approximations that
> bunch most if not all inner electrons together and approximate them
> by an average field.

There have been some intriguing results in using computational methods
to find simple expressions for physical ratios:

E.g. https://vixra.org/pdf/1410.0054v6.pdf   (oh man, an I actually
sharing a vixra link? I promise that Plouffe is not a kook, even if
these results are a bit kooky as far as physics go.)

Given that it's possible measure frequency differences very precisely
(and without a multi billion dollar particle accelerator), it might be
interesting to search for some of these.  However, the frequency
ratios might not be the most natural ratios to search for. E.g. it
might be useful to first back out various effects which we know how to
account for precisely and see if there is a simple expression for the
residual.

If one were found it might suggest some avenues to search for physical
explanations justifying the match as a closed form solution.

Unfortunately, the Plouffe Inverter grew pretty big and as a result no
one has an instance of it online anymore AFAICT. So anyone interested
in exploring this would probably need to contact plouffe.