Chronon

Instant; Moment; Time quantum; Time unit

A chronon is the smallest, discrete, non-decomposable unit of time in a temporal data model. In a one-dimensional model, a chronon is a time interval or period, while in an n-dimensional model it is a non-decomposable region in n-dimensional time. Important special types of chronons include valid-time, transaction-time, and bitemporal chronons.

Data models often represent a time line by a sequence of non-decomposable, consecutive time periods of identical duration. These periods are termed chronons. A data model will typically leave the size of each particular chronon unspecified. The size (e.g., 1 μs) will be fixed later by an individual application or by a database management system, within the restrictions posed by the implementation of the data model. The number of chronons is finite in a bounded model (i.e., a model with a minimum and maximum chronon), or countably infinite otherwise. Consecutive chronons may...

Authors and Affiliations

1. Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

   Curtis E. Dyreson

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Curtis E. Dyreson .

Editors and Affiliations

1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

   Ling Liu

2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

   M. Tamer Özsu

1. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

   Richard T. Snodgrass

2. Aalborg University, Aalborg Øst, Denmark

   Christian S. Jensen

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