A cesium beam atomic clock computer model. II. The clock signal

We are developing a cesium atomic clock computer model to be used for anomaly diagnostics. It could also be used as a clock design and quality-control tool. Clock components and/or functions are modeled by program units that run independently and communicate with each other through data files which are integral parts of the model. A set of modules which jointly comprise an ab initio model of the cesium beam tube has been described previously. We have recently added a set of modules that compute rigorously the time-dependent cesium beam tube signal for different microwave modulation schemes, and then calculate the clock observables “beam current”, “error signal” and “second harmonic signal”. Some examples of the use of the model to calculate clock operational characteristics are presented