Scientists have created the first time-crystal two-body system in an experiment that seems to bend the laws of physics.
The team recently witnessed the first interaction of the new phase of matter.
Time crystals were thought to be impossible because they are made from atoms. The discovery shows that time crystals can be created and can be turned into useful devices.
Time crystals are different from a standard crystal in that they are composed of atoms arranged in a regularly repeating pattern in space.
Frank Wilczek was the first to theorize in 2012 that time crystals were in constant, repeating motion in time despite no external input. Their atoms are moving in one direction or the other.
Everybody knows that motion machines are impossible. As long as we keep our eyes closed, the motion is okay. We can make time crystals by sneaking through this crack.
Even if time crystals don't exist in the first place, putting two of them together works well. We already know they exist at room temperature.
A two-level system is a basic building block of a quantum computer. Time crystals could be used to build quantum devices.
An international team of researchers from Lancaster University, Royal Holloway London, Landau Institute, and Aalto University in Helsinki observed time crystals by using Helium-3 which is a rare isotope of helium with one missing neutron. The experiment was done in a university.
They cooled it to about one tenth of a degree from absolute zero. Two time crystals were created inside the superfluid. The scientists watched the two time crystals interact.
More information: Nonlinear two-level dynamics of quantum time crystals, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30783-w Journal information: Nature Communications
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