The CIPM list ‘Recommended values of standard frequencies’: 2021 update

This paper gives a detailed account of the analysis underpinning the 2021 update to the list of standard reference frequency values recommended by the International Committee for Weights and Measures. This update focused on a subset of atomic transitions that are secondary representations of the second (SRS) or considered as potential SRS. As in previous updates in 2015 and 2017, methods for analysing over-determined data sets were applied to make optimum use of the worldwide body of published clock comparison data. To ensure that these methods were robust, three independent calculations were performed using two different algorithms. The 2021 update differed from previous updates in taking detailed account of correlations among the input data, a step shown to be important in deriving unbiased frequency values and avoiding underestimation of their uncertainties. It also differed in the procedures used to assess input data and to assign uncertainties to the recommended frequency values, with previous practice being adapted to produce a fully consistent output data set consisting of frequency ratio values as well as absolute frequencies. These changes are significant in the context of an anticipated redefinition of the second in terms of an optical transition or transitions, since optical frequency ratio measurements will be critical for verifying the international consistency of optical clocks prior to the redefinition. In the meantime, the reduced uncertainties for optical SRS resulting from this analysis significantly increases the weight that secondary frequency standards based on these transitions can have in the steering of International Atomic Time.