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PreprintarXiv licencearXiv

Characterising the precision of a clock without any external time reference

  • Pablo Á. Domínguez
  • Christopher Chubb
  • Mischa P. Woods
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Abstract

Determining a clock's precision usually requires comparison with a better time reference, yet no ideal reference is physically attainable. We show how a single clock can characterise its own precision using only a signal splitter and delayed trigger, whose uncertainty is explicitly accounted for. The resulting estimator depends only on tick-count statistics. A purpose-built electronic circuit validates the method without an external timekeeper or a second clock.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{dominguez2026characterising,
  title = {{Characterising the precision of a clock without any external time reference}},
  author = {Pablo Á. Domínguez and Christopher Chubb and Mischa P. Woods},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.31832},
  eprint = {2609.31832},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31832},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Characterising the precision of a clock without any external time reference
AU  - Pablo Á. Domínguez
AU  - Christopher Chubb
AU  - Mischa P. Woods
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/25
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.31832
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31832
AB  - Determining a clock's precision usually requires comparison with a better time reference, yet no ideal reference is physically attainable. We show how a single clock can characterise its own precision using only a signal splitter and delayed trigger, whose uncertainty is explicitly accounted for. The resulting estimator depends only on tick-count statistics. A purpose-built electronic circuit validates the method without an external timekeeper or a second clock.
ER  -