Measuring time means counting the occurrence of periodic phenomena. Over the past centuries a major effort was put to make stable and precise oscillators to be used as clock regulators. Here we consider a different class of clocks based on stochastic clicking processes. We provide a rigorous statistical framework to study the performances of such devices and apply our results to a single coherently driven two-level atom under photodetection as an extreme example of non-periodic clock. Quantum Jump MonteCarlo simulations and photon counting waiting time distribution will provide independent checks on the main results.

中文翻译：

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非周期性光时钟的统计时域表征

测量时间意味着计算周期性现象的发生。在过去的几个世纪里，人们付出了巨大的努力来制造稳定和精确的振荡器，以用作时钟调节器。在这里，我们考虑基于随机点击过程的不同类别的时钟。我们提供了一个严格的统计框架来研究此类设备的性能，并将我们的结果应用于光电探测下的单个相干驱动的两能级原子，作为非周期时钟的一个极端例子。Quantum Jump MonteCarlo 模拟和光子计数等待时间分布将对主要结果进行独立检查。