Exponential gain in clock precision using quantum correlated ticks

Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.10785 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 15 Jan 2026] Title:Exponential gain in clock precision using quantum correlated ticks Authors:Florian Meier, Yuri Minoguchi, Gianmichele Blasi, Géraldine Haack, Marcus Huber View a PDF of the paper titled Exponential gain in clock precision using quantum correlated ticks, by Florian Meier and 4 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Creating precise timing devices at ultra-short time scales is not just an important technological challenge, but confronts us with foundational questions about timekeeping's ultimate precision limits. Research on clocks has either focused on long-term stability using an oscillator stabilized by a level transition, limiting precision at short timescales, or on making individual stochastic ticks as precise as possible. Here, we prove the viability of a conceptually different avenue: the autonomous self-correction of consecutive ticks by quantum correlations. This provides a new paradigm that integrates the advantages and insights from quantum transport theory to operate clocks at ultra-short timescales. We fully solve a model of coupled quantum systems and show how the emergent Pauli exclusion principle correlates the clock at the quantum level yielding an exponential advantage in precision. We furthermore demonstrate through simulations with realistic imperfections that this remarkable gain in precision remains stable providing a roadmap for implementation with contemporary quantum technologies. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) Cite as: arXiv:2601.10785 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.10785v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.10785 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Florian Meier [view email] [v1] Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:00:00 UTC (915 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Exponential gain in clock precision using quantum correlated ticks, by Florian Meier and 4 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.stat-mech References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)