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Science, Physics, Time + On neutrinos and nanoseconds

Article from Symmetry  :

On neutrinos and nanoseconds: Physicists partner with professional timekeeper

December 1, 2011 | 2:11 pm

Professional timekeeper Demetrios Matsakis does not wear a watch. Image: Amy Dusto

When Demetrios Matsakis, the head of the U.S. Naval Observatory department that deals with measuring time, received an email from a Fermilab physicist in late September, he had immediate suspicions. The physicist asked if a two-way satellite transfer, one of the Naval Observatory’s specialties, would work in a particular timing measurement.

“This is about neutrinos, isn’t it?” Matsakis wrote back. Yes, it was.

Matsakis, head of the Time Service Department, soon found himself advising physicist Carl Rosenfeld and his partners on MINOS, a Fermilab neutrino experiment. This year another neutrino experiment, called OPERA, found the subatomic particles seemed to beat the speed of light while traveling between CERN in Switzerland and Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. This is considered impossible under special relativity. The MINOS collaboration plans to double-check the OPERA experiment’s result.

While on a personal trip to Europe this week, Matsakis stopped by CERN and met with OPERA researcher Dario Autiero, who first presented the perplexing neutrino results on Sept. 23.

Matsakis did not wear a watch on his trip to CERN, nor has he ever. He’s like many people in that he doesn’t want “to be ruled by time,” he said. Instead, Matsakis does the ruling.

In his job, Matsakis keeps the official time for the United States and the U.S. Department of Defense and, together with theNational Institute of Standards and Technology, keeps the official time for the United States. This involves maintaining more than 100 atomic clocks and GPS systems calibrated to within one nanosecond of each other – not a simple task.