Abstract
We describe protocols for passive atomic clocks based on quantum
interrogation of the atoms. Unlike previous techniques, our protocols are
adaptive and take advantage of prior information about the clock's state. To
reduce deviations from an ideal clock, each interrogation is optimized by means
of a semidefinite program for atomic state preparation and measurement whose
objective function depends on the prior information. Our knowledge of the
clock's state is maintained according to a Bayesian model that accounts for
noise and measurement results. We implement a full simulation of a running
clock with power-law noise models and find significant improvements by applying
our techniques.