Modeling lattice light shifts in optical lattice clocks

Optical lattice clocks rely on a strong perturbation to the atoms for atomic confinement. Within the optical lattice, the atomic levels are light-shifted by an amount $\gtrsim\!10^{-10}$ times the clock frequency. While clock performance has steadily improved over the years, with fractional inaccuracies at the low-$10^{-18}$ level now being realized, lattice light shifts have invariably been a dominant item in the uncertainty budgets. To realize new levels of clock performance, better theoretical models will be required for characterizing the lattice light shifts. Here we present a new model developed for this purpose.