CERN Collider to Become the World’s Fastest Stopwatch?

Light pulses a million times shorter than previously possible: Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology are proposing a new measuring method, using equipment which will soon be available at CERN. Heavy ion collisions at CERN should be able to produce the shortest light pulses ever created. This was demonstrated by computer simulations at the Vienna University of Technology. The pulses are so short that they cannot even be measured by today's technological equipment. Now, a method has been proposed to create the world's most precise stopwatch for the world's shortest light pulses, using a detector which is going to be installed at CERN in 2018. Small, Short and Hot - Phenomena taking place on very short time scales are often investigated using ultra short laser pulses. Today, pulse durations of the order of attoseconds (billionths of a billionths of a second, 10^-18 seconds) can be created.