Knowing you have an authentic time crystal takes more than looking for high-quality gems.
A group of researchers used a new type of quantum computing hardware from Google to double-check their theoretical vision of a time crystal, which they found to be compatible with all of the right boxes for an emerging form of technology we're still getting our head around.
A time crystal is a repeating change in a system that doesn't require energy to enter or leave.
The fact that the system's entropy doesn't increase means it should be on the right side of physics.
A crystal like that might look like it doesn't match the rest of the system's rhythms. A laser tapping out a steady beat on your time crystal might make its particles' spins flip only on the other taps.
The flip-flopping is a signature time crystal behavior, and has been used as evidence for the design and production of time crystals in past experiments.
The complexity of interacting quantum objects all swinging to their own rhythm leaves some wiggle room for explanations that aren't necessarily dependent on the same rules that underpin time crystal physics.
We can't rule out that a system that initially looks like a time crystal might eventually fall into disarray.
You could either sit and watch the Universe die or you could use a quantum computer.
Matteo Ippoliti says that the quantum computers of the future will be thinking of them as complex quantum systems.
We're putting the computer to work as a new experimental platform to realize and detect new phases of matter.
The starting place for this particular time crystal was a work done by Vedika Khemani, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, Berkeley.
We're familiar with the consequences of this kind of physics. If you leave your coffee out on the bench for half an hour, you'll discover how quickly its heat energy is dissipated as it sits out of equilibrium with its environment.
Khemani and her colleagues were interested in the less intuitive level of quantum physics.
It was only when a reviewer of Khemani's research noticed similarities between her work and time crystals that she focused her attention on this exciting new field of physics.
Time-crystals are an example of a new type of non-equilibrium quantum phase of matter.
The new quantum devices are giving us a glimpse into new non-equilibrium regimes in many-body physics, which is something we don't get with equilibrium systems.
Modelling their time crystal allowed the team to look for signs of infinite repetition within just a few hundred kicks of a laser pulse. They could scale the simulation and run it backwards.
"It told us how to correct for our own errors so that we could get a good idea of ideal time-crystalline behavior," says Moessner.
It's important to have ways to model actual time crystals with confidence that they represent a truly unique phase of matter.
Time crystals promise to be a window into the novel ways that a wide range of complex systems operate, providing insights not just into quantum spaces, but systems as complex as our own brains.
A lot of scientists will be looking for a time crystal one day. There is less of a chance of them being ripped off.
The research was published in a journal.
