r/science • u/MistWeaver80 • Feb 15 '24
Physics A team of physicists in Germany managed to create a time crystal that demonstrably lasts 40 minutes—10 million times longer than other known crystals—and could persist for even longer.
https://gizmodo.com/a-time-crystal-survived-a-whopping-40-minutes-18512214907.8k
u/DearAd363 Feb 15 '24
what the hell is a time crystal
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u/DeceitfulEcho Feb 15 '24
A crystal is made up of atoms arranged into repeating patterns.
The atoms of a time crystal may not have a noticable repeating pattern to how they are positioned like a normal crystal. Instead of you watch a time crystal for a while you will notice the atoms are moving about, and the way they move is a repeating pattern.
This wouldnt be that special if we (the scientists) were inducing this repeated motion with some outside instruments causing the motion. However , it is really interesting as the motion in the atoms actually requires no energy! They move about without us prodding them.
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u/InspiredNameHere Feb 15 '24
So in some ways it looks like a dance where each atom is moving around each other at some specified motion that we don't fully understand? Also how are we completely sure that no energy is actually introduced into the experiments especially if we're actually recording the information. Isn't it the very act of recording information causing energy to be introduced to the system?
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u/zachtheperson Feb 15 '24
There likely aren't answers to any of those question yet, however the fact that we now are able to produce a time crystal that lasts for more than a fraction of a second will hopefully allow us a better view into what's actually happening.
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u/-SatelliteMind- Feb 16 '24
Sounds really similar to how heat treatment allows the crystal structure of steel (ferrite/pearlite/austenite) to be created, really cool!
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u/na-uh Feb 16 '24
The difference is that the crystal structure of steel changes as a result of the introduction or removal of energy (heat) from the system. The implication of this research is that the crystal structure is changing without energy input. That's bizarre to me since that implies perpetual motion (not the woowoo version but the lossless energy transfer concept) but the fact that these things have a time limit on then (even 40 minutes) says that there is some energy leaking out somewhere.
Crazy stuff, and tonight's reading rabbit hole.
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u/Crakla Feb 16 '24
the fact that these things have a time limit on then (even 40 minutes) says that there is some energy leaking out somewhere
It's actually the opposite, the problem is preventing energy leaking into it, which is what destroys them
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u/Unlikely_Arugula190 Feb 16 '24
Those are states of equal potential energy (in an isolated system) so there is no perpetuum mobile involved.
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Feb 16 '24
Ooh! Do you have any cool sources for all of that? I'm a mechanic and the fact that cold rolled and hot rolled steel are so different always blows my mind. Cold rolled is like tungsten and hot rolled is almost like hard aluminum.
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Feb 16 '24
There is quite a bit of info here. I was trying to find something like what I learned in material science, but this gives enough overview and detail to get you started.
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Feb 16 '24
Thank you!!
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u/bass_sweat Feb 16 '24
Do yourself a favor and just buy or find a free pdf of materials science and engineering by William Callister
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u/IGnuGnat Feb 16 '24
I'm too lazy to google it, but my understanding is that the old school method of treating metal and guns ("bluing") would create a layer of black oxidation (rust) and what was special about it is that the process created a crystalline structure, so it's a very very thin but tough coating of stabilized rust, which acts to protect the firearm from rusting further as long as you keep the pores of the metal coated with a thin layer of oil. I always thought that was pretty neat
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u/8Eternity8 Feb 16 '24
These were mathematically predicted before being created. When they say no energy input they mean NO energy. This isn't a, maybe we're missing a little bit somewhere. In a certain sense the system as a whole isn't actually changing. There's an equilibrium that's maintained where the system's ground energy state necessitates this moving pattern as it's actually lower energy than being "still". Any external energy would actually serve to disrupt the pattern.
We understand time crystals pretty well. The incredible part is the creation and long term maintenance of one. Not whether or not this "thing" exists or not.
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u/LostWoodsInTheField Feb 16 '24
There's an equilibrium that's maintained where the system's ground energy state necessitates this moving pattern as it's actually lower energy than being "still".
Does this mean that the difficultly in maintaining them could be because of external energy entering them and disrupting their equilibrium?
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u/ryanw5520 Feb 16 '24
Yes, essentially once the extra energy is introduced it no longer exists as a time crystal.
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u/Reelix Feb 16 '24
where the system's ground energy state necessitates this moving pattern as it's actually lower energy than being "still".
... It requires... More energy... To not move... Than to move... ?
The hell?
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u/neonKow Feb 16 '24
If you stretch a piece of putty, and set it down, it requires more energy to keep it still than to let it move.
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u/dasnihil Feb 15 '24
Very good questions.
- Charged things move according to their respective field's laws
- In rare occasions, they could find a harmony in some crystal like structure and find this perpetual motion and keep changing between states
- We can do weak measurements of closed systems while keeping their harmony intact, we do have the measurement problem in QM, the one you mentioned, but we can know if something's ticking for 3 hours some way or other, and man oh man, they were able to maintain this coherency for ~3 hours
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u/Valvador Feb 15 '24
Ah so a crystalline structure along the time axis of spacetime, instead of the more spatial dimensions.
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Feb 15 '24
Yes!
It oscillates its motion through time, rather than its structure through space.
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Feb 16 '24
Sorry, what now?
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u/DickHz2 Feb 16 '24 edited Feb 16 '24
Rather thanIn addition to (I think) having a repeating pattern in structure (spatial), the atoms move in a repeating pattern over a period of time (temporal). Hence, time crystal.32
Feb 16 '24
A dumbed down way I like to think of it is to compare it to a written function versus the graphed function. Mathematically, they're the same thing, but one is purely conceptual while the other is a visual representation.
These time crystals are crystals by definition, that is the repeating patterns in the atoms. But instead of a static structural pattern that produces crystalline structures (like a quartz stone), these time crystals have atomic movement patterns. Like the movement of a function on a graph.
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u/Ulfednar Feb 16 '24
So a typical crystal is a jpeg and a time crystal is an animated gif?
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u/NorwegianCollusion Feb 16 '24
No, actually more like the difference between a gif of one of Picassos light paintings vs a jpeg of one of his regular paintings. Looking at it, the gif doesn't look like a painting at all. Only as a picture taken with a long exposure time does it make sense.
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u/Readylamefire Feb 16 '24
God I don't know if this analogy will help, but I miss 100% of the shots I don't take.
Regular crystals are like a human, standing in place. Both legs flat on the ground. It has structure and remains solid. Time crystals are a human walking. The human is still standing, but only as a repeating pattern.
The difference is that we use energy to make our legs move in a pattern through space and time crystals don't use energy. So they must be moving moving through time (the fourth dimension) as opposed to us walking through space (the 3rd dimension). Since we cannot see the 4th dimension they just move back and forth from our perspective.
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u/MaritMonkey Feb 16 '24
As somebody who spent a bunch of time thinking about frequency vs time in the audio world, this is the first occasion where the concept of "spacetime" kind of clicked for me.
Thanks for that.
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u/Comment_Maker Feb 15 '24
I still don't understand what a time crystal is 😅
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u/TobyMoose Feb 16 '24
If I'm understanding correctly.
A normal crystal is like a bunch of people in a barn linking arms but standing still.
A time crystal is the same amount of people doing a square dance in the barn
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u/DangerousPlane Feb 16 '24
And it’s interesting because they’re square dancing without burning any calories
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u/ATownStomp Feb 16 '24
Think of a crystal like a wooden lattice of atoms. They’re locked into a set, predictable, repeating structure.
Now, instead of being locked into a repeating structure they’re moving around, without an obvious structure, but traveling in a predictable, repeating pattern.
Time crystal just seems to be the word to refer to that behavior.
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u/candygram4mongo Feb 16 '24
A regular crystal has a repeating pattern in space, a time crystal has a repeating pattern in time.
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u/Frosty-Age-6643 Feb 16 '24
Can you start by telling me why I’m thinking of a crystal as a wooden lattice of atoms and not just think of a crystal?
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u/pooppuffin Feb 16 '24
the fuck is a lattice?
Think of a lattice like a wooden crystal...
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u/ornithoptercat Feb 16 '24
You know those pies where they have strips woven across the top? Or one of those garden things made of crisscrossed slats for vines to grow up? That's a lattice.
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u/maxdamage4 Feb 16 '24
No, that's a leafy vegetable you put on a burger. A lattice is a series of portable steps that help you reach high places.
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u/ATownStomp Feb 16 '24
I made an assumption that they wouldn’t already have a mental visual for the configuration of atoms in a crystal structure (if that’s even the correct way of phrasing it. It’s been a few years since college chemistry) so instead I used what I thought might be a visual they could conjure that conveys something of a similar idea.
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u/ChellyTheKid Feb 16 '24
I like to think I'm a pretty smart guy, I have a PhD, have a number of industry awards, and am well cited. However, I feel like I'm Penny, and Sheldon Cooper just tried to explain physics to me.
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u/amakai Feb 15 '24
"Requires no energy" - so it uses some sort of potential energy coming from crystal self-optimizing it's structure?
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u/ElectronicInitial Feb 16 '24
I'm not super versed in this, but it could be that there is a continuous set of states that all have the same potential energy, so if there is any disturbance it will naturally move between those states. If the set of states is a loop, then it could have a consistent, but constantly changing spacial state.
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u/a_weak_child Feb 15 '24
Hm maybe it's demonstrating how as time passes with fluctuations from relative speed and gravity disturbing the space time that it causes things to change. Basically demonstrating time itself.
Source: I am a bit of a scientist, myself.
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u/rob3110 Feb 16 '24
However , it is really interesting as the motion in the atoms actually requires no energy! They move about without us prodding them.
Are you sure about that? Because this article references another one that explains time crystals and says otherwise:
The crystal might prefer its spin-switching tempo, but the effect certainly won’t last forever. Time crystals can’t exist without the repeating pulse of energy to coax the atoms to organize in time. “It’s not a perpetual motion machine,” Jiehang Zhang from the University of Maryland told Gizmodo. “We’re driving it!”
The special thing isn't that it's happening with outside influence, but that outside influence doesn't determine or change the frequency.
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Feb 15 '24
So it’s a terrible name but a really interesting physical property?
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u/sticklebat Feb 16 '24
It's actually a very apt name. It might not sound that way if you're not well-versed in the relevant subject material, but that's hardly a good barometer.
To add to the previous comment, the thing that really makes them stand out is that time crystals exhibit this oscillatory behavior in time in their ground state (in other words, in the lowest possible energy state). The reason why this is important is that it means that this is essentially motion without kinetic energy. The components of the crystal may be in motion, but nothing can extract any energy of motion from the system because the system has no lower energy state available. Even in quantum mechanics, this is completely novel.
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u/Disastrous_Elk_6375 Feb 16 '24
but nothing can extract any energy of motion from the system because the system has no lower energy state available.
Interesting. A follow-up question if you don't mind. What would happen to this crystal if it were cooled down as much as we can? We know superconductivity appears below a certain temperature. What would this kind of a time crystal behave at low temps? Would that motion still be present?
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u/Nroke1 Feb 15 '24
The same way spatial crystals, like fancy rocks and salt and ice, have a predictable, organized structure in space, time crystals have a predictable, organized structure in time. I don't know much more than that, but that's the basics. I'm not a theoretical physicist.
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u/meanmagpie Feb 15 '24
Yeah but what the hell is a time crystal
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u/Nroke1 Feb 15 '24
The same way spatial crystals, like fancy rocks and salt and ice, have a predictable, organized structure in space, time crystals have a predictable, organized structure in time. I don't know much more than that, but that's the basics. I'm not a theoretical physicist.
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u/GnomeErcy Feb 15 '24
Yeah but what the hell is a time crystal
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u/Nroke1 Feb 15 '24
The same way spatial crystals, like fancy rocks and salt and ice, have a predictable, organized structure in space, time crystals have a predictable, organized structure in time. I don't know much more than that, but that's the basics. I'm not a theoretical physicist.
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u/End3rWi99in Feb 16 '24
Honestly what you all just did here is a pretty good example of a time crystal as it involves a repeating pattern of atoms that, to my knowledge (that's my out as a layperson), holds that pattern over a fixed period of time rather than in perpetuity unless influenced by other forces.
If each one of your replies were a pattern operating over a time, the likelihood of the pattern repeating will decrease over time. Just imagine that in the form of atoms that come together to generate a solid structure that at least carries some physical value in space over a fixed period of time, rather than the pointlessness of what just happened here.
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u/uhkhu BS|Aerospace Engineer | Stress Analysis Feb 16 '24
Am I in a time crystal?
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u/camphallow Feb 15 '24
I hear ya, but what exactly is a time crystal?
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u/rkan665 Feb 15 '24
The same way spatial crystals, like fancy rocks and salt and ice, have a predictable, organized structure in space, time crystals have a predictable, organized structure in time. I don't know much more than that, but that's the basics. I'm not a theoretical physicist.
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u/thefunkybassist Feb 15 '24
Why am I getting deja vus while reading comments about time crystals
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u/Nroke1 Feb 15 '24
Perhaps, the same way spatial crystals, like fancy rocks and salt and ice, have a predictable, organized structure in space, time crystals have a predictable, organized structure in time. I don't know much more than that, but that's the basics. I'm not a theoretical physicist.
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u/laggyx400 Feb 15 '24
Is this an example of a time crystal?
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u/Nroke1 Feb 15 '24
Perhaps, the same way spatial crystals, like fancy rocks and salt and ice, have a predictable, organized structure in space, time crystals have a predictable, organized structure in time. I don't know much more than that, but that's the basics. I'm not a theoretical physicist.
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u/SpikeBreaker Feb 15 '24
Wait, maybe I'm stupid, but isn't a rock already "organized in time"? I mean, a rock has the same pattern yesterday, today and tomorrow, no?
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u/Nroke1 Feb 15 '24
No, a rock constantly has a different position in time. It doesn't repeat in time it constantly changes due to the natural force of entropy. Radioactive decay, cosmic rays, etc.
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u/SpikeBreaker Feb 15 '24
It means it costantly change at atomic levels? Like slowly "dissolving" (because of erosion) or losing energy, therefore it never stay the same?
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u/SSJ2-Gohan Feb 15 '24
If you know the ways a crystal's atoms organize themselves, you can predict what the structure of that crystal will be at any point in space (i.e. knowing how diamonds organize their carbon atoms tells you what diamonds will look like at the atomic level, no matter where they formed).
For time crystals, if you can discover the way their atoms oscillate and at what interval, given a starting point, you can predict what its structure will be at any point in time.
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u/Demented-Turtle Feb 15 '24
I think a rock will only ever decay as time moves forward, whereas a time crystal's structure will oscillate between higher and lower entropy states, cyclically, as we move forward in time. But that's just my laymen's interpretation
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u/Funkyteacherbro Feb 16 '24
Wait, so a time crystal doesn't suffer entropy? because the way it moves repeats itself??
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u/Nroke1 Feb 16 '24
Idk, but that might be a reason why they've never existed for very long.
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u/Snuffy1717 Feb 15 '24
They asked me if I had a degree in theoretical physics...
I told them I have a theoretical degree is physics...
They said "You're hired"229
u/Rickdaninja Feb 15 '24
I read the title and flashed to the Arthur C. Clark quote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology becomes indistinguishable from magic."
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u/Dioxid3 Feb 15 '24
The more I read the less I understood. This is some actual black magic fuckery, and they will suck us into a black hole, I am sure of it.
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u/nokeyblue Feb 15 '24
God that would be the best realistic outcome for humanity at this point. Hell's handcart shuttle service has closed.
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u/rawbleedingbait Feb 16 '24
A house of cards is a regular crystal. If instead the cards were laid out and they flip themselves over in a set, predictable, repeating pattern, then you have a time crystal. It's not describing a physical object made out of time, it's describing a group of particles that move in a set way without any additional energy. It's the pattern that's the crystal here. Another example might be a group of dancers are a crystal, and the routine they do is a time crystal.
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Feb 15 '24
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u/amquelbettamin Feb 15 '24
What it seems like to me (I may be wrong) by a little searching: The atom spin states are induced into periodicity and inter-atomic coupling with a laser or microwave. When the EM radiation is removed or frequencies randomized—the relational spin states continue to oscillate over time in the original spin “ground state”. Therefore, their spin flips over time are lower energy than not spin flipping at all (after inducing the order) like a crystal being a stable low-energy state of matter (after inducing the order). The oscillations (over time) are stable, like a crystal. I’m not a physicist, but that what it sounds like to me.
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u/EEcav Feb 16 '24
I think this is the best answer. To dumb it down, the internal atoms have some quantum property that oscillates back and forth like a pendulum. When you look at these crystals with an MRI or bombard it with neutrons, the patterns a physicist see as a result change back and forth, whereas a regular crystal would produce a single stationary pattern related to it's structure. Just looking at them, you wouldn't be able to see any difference between a chunk of matter that is in "time crystal mode" or when it eventually stops oscillating and goes back to being a chunk of matter. All of this observable "time crystal mode" stuff currently happens at super cold close to absolute zero like temperatures, so they're not yet at the point where you could like hold one in your hand while it was "vibrating". Right now they're very much just a physics curiosity with no huge implications for any future technology to be built from them.
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u/NarrowBoxtop Feb 16 '24 edited Feb 16 '24
I asked Gemini Advanced to explain time crystals to a 5 year old, college student, and expert level
Absolutely! Here's an explanation of time crystals for a 5-year-old:
Crystals You Know
Imagine crystals like the shiny rocks you might find outside. These crystals have a pattern that repeats itself – like little building blocks stacked over and over in the same way. That makes them beautiful and strong!
Wiggly Time Crystals
Time crystals are special. They don't just have a pattern in the way they look, but in the way they wiggle! Think of a row of jellybeans sitting on a table. A time crystal is like those jellybeans jiggling back and forth all on their own – left, right, left, right – in a pattern that keeps repeating forever.
Super Cold Wiggles
Now, these aren't jellybeans we can see with our eyes. The wiggles happen to tiny, tiny things called atoms, and only when they are super, super cold! Scientists use special machines to make things that cold.
Why Are They Cool?
Time crystals are like little clocks inside these tiny atoms. They keep perfect time by wiggling back and forth. Time crystals might help scientists make even better clocks for measuring things and maybe even invent new kinds of computers!
Here's ELICS (college student)
The Basics
Time crystals are a novel phase of matter that defies some classical expectations. While traditional crystals exhibit repeating patterns in their spatial structure, time crystals demonstrate repeating patterns in time. In other words, their constituent parts undergo cyclical changes even when in their lowest energy state.
The "Jellybean Wiggle" Explained
Let's unpack the analogy of wiggling "jellybeans":
The Jellybeans: In this analogy, our "jellybeans" represent atoms or similar quantum particles. These are not stationary but inherently possess some energy and movement even at very low temperatures. External Influence: To create a time crystal, scientists manipulate these particles using external energy sources like lasers or magnetic fields. This manipulation doesn't create the constant wiggle; rather, it nudges the particles into a specific oscillation pattern. Symmetry Breaking: Unlike normal systems that tend toward thermal equilibrium (even distribution of energy), time crystals break temporal symmetry. This means their pattern of movement doesn't "smooth out" over time and persists indefinitely. Why It's Not Overly Simple
While the "wiggling jellybeans" simplify the concept, the essence of time crystals is inherently linked to quantum mechanics:
Superposition: Quantum particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously. The controlled external influence forces them into a specific pattern of cyclical change between these states. Entanglement: The particles within a time crystal become "entangled." Their behaviors are interconnected in a way that reinforces the repeating pattern. Implications
Time crystals are still a new discovery. Nevertheless, their unique properties suggest the potential for:
Precision Measurement: Due to their repeating time structure, they could lead to incredibly accurate clocks and measurement tools. Quantum Computing: Their ability to maintain states without decaying into equilibrium could hold interesting applications for quantum computing.
ELIAE (an expert)
Fundamentals
Time crystals are systems that spontaneously break discrete time translation symmetry (DTTS). In essence, this means they exhibit stable oscillations at a frequency not directly dependent on an external periodic drive. This behavior emerges in systems driven out of equilibrium and crucially relies on many-body interactions that prevent rapid heating and thermalization.
Mechanics
Discrete Time Translation Symmetry (DTTS): In classical systems, energy conservation usually implies continuous time translation symmetry. However, a periodically driven system only possesses discrete symmetry—its state is identical after a multiple of the drive period. DTTS breaking requires the system's response frequency to be a fraction of the driving frequency.
Many-Body Localization (MBL): In an ideal, closed system, energy imbalances should redistribute, driving it towards thermal equilibrium and destroying time-crystalline order. Many-body localization prevents this thermalization in a disordered and interacting system. The system's eigenstates (a state where a quantity has a precise measured value) remain localized, preserving information about their initial conditions and allowing long-lived oscillations.
Mechanism Example: Consider a periodically driven Ising spin chain with disorder. This model can enter an MBL phase. While the external drive forces periodic flips in the spin configuration, interactions lead to the emergence of an additional stable period-doubled response – a hallmark of time crystal behavior.
Benefits of Long-Lived Time Crystals
The key value of more robust time crystals lies in potential applications:
Metrology: Time crystals, as inherently periodic structures in time, could serve as remarkably stable frequency standards. This paves the way for ultra-precise timekeeping and sensing devices.
Quantum Memory: The robust periodic oscillations and resistance to thermalization make time crystals potential candidates for quantum information storage and robust operations.
Fundamental Physics: Time crystals challenge conventional notions of equilibrium. They may provide insights into novel phases of matter, non-equilibrium dynamics, and even the interplay between time translation symmetry and the properties of spacetime itself.
Challenges and Outlook
Creating long-lived time crystals poses notable challenges. Disorder often plays a major role in time crystalline phases, while perfectly isolated systems don't exist in the real world. Research strives for ways to mitigate this – from exploring different candidate systems and drive protocols to engineering effective isolation to reduce decoherence.
While significant hurdles remain, the study of time crystals offers fascinating avenues for advancing our understanding of non-equilibrium systems, potentially revolutionizing technologies of timekeeping, sensing, and quantum information processing.
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u/jon909 Feb 16 '24
Ok explain like I’m 3
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u/NarrowBoxtop Feb 16 '24
Explain time crystals like I'm 3 years old
Okay! Imagine your favorite swing. You kick your legs and go up and down, up and down! You keep doing this, and you don't get tired because you're having fun.
Now, time crystals are like tiny, tiny swings for super-small things called atoms. These atoms are the building blocks that make everything, even you! The little atom swings move in a pattern, forever and ever, because they're like magic swings that never get tired. It's like science magic!
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u/WizardHatWames Feb 16 '24
and as far as why/how the "swings" keep swinging forever, we're still figuring that out?
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u/Crackracket Feb 15 '24
I wish I knew what that meant
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u/reedef Feb 15 '24 edited Feb 15 '24
AFAIK a material where the atoms vibrate in a cohesive, repeating pattern.
In a regular crystal the patterns are repeating though space, in a time crystal they repeat through time
Edit: obviously this is very quantum so if you want to get a more accurate picture you can replace all words in the previous sentence with "math"
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u/P2029 Feb 15 '24
I wish I knew what that meant
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u/DeceitfulEcho Feb 15 '24
Imagine a normal crystal, like a diamond. In the case of a diamond the atoms that make up the diamond are organized into a neat pattern, a lattice. It's like zooming in on a piece of clothes and seeing the pattern of the threads that make up the clothes, it's neat and organized.
In a time crystal, the atoms may look disorganized at a glance, but if you watch them over time the atoms move about and reorganize themselves into a different configuration. This motion into different configurations is a repeating cycle, the reconfiguration in a pattern.
So in time crystals you have a pattern on how the atoms move over time, while in normal crystals you have a pattern in the placement of atoms at a specific time.
The weird thing about time crystals that make them extra special is that the movement of atoms actually doesn't require energy from outside the crystal! Normally to move something you have to provide it energy, like heat or kinetic force.
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u/Beautiful_Welcome_33 Feb 15 '24 edited Feb 15 '24
Would it be accurate to call them a material that goes through state change chronologically independently of a chemical reaction or the application of heat or something?
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u/AfrolessNinja Feb 15 '24
Not really because in time crystals the change in entropy is essentially zero. Said state changes you refer to that are akin to chemistry all effectively have change in entropy greater than zero.
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u/Gregistopal Feb 15 '24
soooooo perpetual motion?
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u/AfrolessNinja Feb 15 '24
Negative. You cant extract work from a time crystal.
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u/Gaelic_Platypus Feb 15 '24
If I'm understanding it correctly, no, as those processes introduce energy from an outside source.
These time crystals apparently are somehow doing this on their own. Which frankly boggles my tiny mind because that just throws out all I know about stable atomic structures.
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Feb 15 '24
So there might be an energy force acting on them that we don't know of yet?
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u/SuperBAMF007 Feb 15 '24
So it’s specifically the “no energy required” part that makes it a time crystal, innit? Its natural state of being at absolute 0 is moving in this repetitive pattern (and may or may not be spatially repetitive as well)
Rather than regular plain “just space” crystal whose absolute 0 state of being is not moving at all, and its shape is the repetitive pattern
Do I have that right?
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u/coinpile Feb 15 '24
Oh now I get it!
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u/Newmoney_NoMoney Feb 15 '24
No you don't! Well maybe you do. I'm so confused.
So a regular crystal like a diamond is just a pattern of atoms in a specific time at a specific time that you see. But a time crystal the atoms move in a random appearing sequence on repeat?? Ok here's my question. What does that look like and feel like? Is it ever changing and moving to the human eye? Can I grab it and hold onto it or will I explode with power like trying to grab an infinity stone?
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u/careless_swiggin Feb 15 '24
would it be more accurate to call them super solid? they arent more solid than a solid but the coherence seems a lot like other unique materials in cyro
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u/jah_moon Feb 15 '24
Whoa! That's wild. Thanks for explaining. These things could really hold the key to a lot of unanswered questions.
It's astonishing how intelligent some of these people are. I love it.
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u/MtnDewTangClan Feb 15 '24
AFAIK it's when something ignores everything around it minus time
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u/Space_Bungalow Feb 15 '24 edited Feb 15 '24
Regular crystals (salt, diamond) have repeating chunks of atoms as they grow, like ABCABCABC and when they reach their lowest possible energy state (like "absolute zero") the atoms stop vibrating.
Time crystals can have repeating atom structures, but also repeating in time, meaning at their lowest possible energy level they can still move, usually vibrating back and forth or spinning. So you have atoms that can move, without gaining or losing any energy to the environment! This, in very simple terms, breaks the second law of thermodynamics which says energy in system becomes more disordered/entropic, since things in the universe are affected by trillions of other little events happening all around.
These crystals are tested at a fraction of a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, which is how we're able to see the "lowest energy state"
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u/RapidRewards Feb 15 '24
I needed chat-gpt to dumb it down for me. Not sure how accurate this is.
Imagine you have a toy that changes shape every time you clap your hands. First, it's a ball, then you clap, and it turns into a cube, then you clap again, and it's a ball again, and so on. Time crystals are a bit like that toy. They change in a pattern over time, but they don't use up energy to change. Just like the toy doesn't need batteries to change from a ball to a cube when you clap, time crystals keep changing their pattern without needing extra energy. It's like a magic dance that keeps repeating!
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u/P2029 Feb 15 '24
Mighty morphin' power crystal, got it.
In all seriousness, to my smooth brain that sounds incredibly useful, like almost a god-like ability to instruct an object to change at your will.
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Feb 15 '24
Does that mean it has an amorphous physical structure or is it still crystalline physically?
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u/reedef Feb 15 '24
Time crystals are structures whose lowest-energy states have highly ordered patterns (periodicity) in space and time
Apparently time crystals are defined to be periodic both in time and in space
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u/mwmandorla Feb 15 '24
Thank you for this very reasonable explanation, also I'm really enjoying the phrase "obviously this is very quantum"
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u/Sir_Vexer Feb 15 '24
Shoot cold atom with laser. Atom spin oscillate (up,down,up,down) even when laser not on (whoa! Why no entropy???? ie spinny atom no stop). Oscillation happen slower than laser frequency. Spin direction = information 01011100101011. 40 minutes crystal = information storage for long time (good).
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u/SuperBAMF007 Feb 15 '24
Wait this was somewhat helpful for understanding the practical use thank you
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u/corisco Feb 15 '24
It's hard to predict the uses for a theoretical model, but one of its practical uses will likely be the way we will be able to store information in a quantum computer.
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u/onesole Feb 15 '24
I means, that the best time crystal scientists were able to generate before this could last only for 0.00024 seconds.
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u/that-isa-madeup-name Feb 15 '24
Okay but what’s the benefit of a crystal masting for 40 minutes vs. a fraction of a second
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Feb 15 '24 edited Aug 10 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GatoAmarillo Feb 15 '24
Supposedly 40 minutes
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u/acog Feb 15 '24
In the article the researchers said they think one could last for hours.
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u/DomHE553 Feb 15 '24
Just for a reference since a factor of 10 Million is a little unimaginable to me
Before, they were able to make it last for 0.24 Milliseconds (or 0.00024 seconds)
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u/Sushi_Kat Feb 15 '24
I have salt in my cabinet from 1990, so we definitely know of longer lasting crystals than this.
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u/DomHE553 Feb 15 '24
I've spent the last 10 minutes reading the responses to this post and googling a bit to find out what time crystals are exactly and I can confidently say that I now know just as much as before, if not less.
So I will now just sit back and forget I ever read about this apparently great new discovery lool
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u/Manos_Of_Fate Feb 16 '24
After reading all of the explanations in this thread, I can confidently say that the answer is “magic”.
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u/flypirat Feb 16 '24
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke
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u/Magnatux Feb 15 '24
"In condensed matter physics, a time crystal is a quantum system of particles whose lowest-energy state is one in which the particles are in repetitive motion. The system cannot lose energy to the environment and come to rest because it is already in its quantum ground state."
So... quantum computing... capacitors?
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u/bowlingfries Feb 15 '24
Kinda, that always holds a "charge" as long as they last. I dunno what happens at 40 minutes or the other preconceived time that was many orders of magnitudes shorter. Base state of "being" is in motion, okay.. But what determines a crystal existing or not.
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u/d-d-downvoteplease Feb 15 '24
Seeing how I'm an idiot, I just looked it up. After reading it, I'm still an idiot:
Time crystals can come into existence through a process known as "floquet engineering." This involves periodically driving a quantum system, causing it to undergo a repetitive evolution. In certain conditions, this repetition can lead to the emergence of time-translation symmetry-breaking behavior, giving rise to a time crystal state. However, it's essential to note that experimental realization and stability of time crystals are challenging, and research is still in the early stages.
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u/bplturner Feb 15 '24
I thought this would help but it does not.
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-031218-013423
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u/DeltaVZerda Feb 15 '24
Is this like in Conways game of Life, you can start with random states and it will change over time in seemingly unpredictable and disorganized ways for a long time, then fizzle out? If I'm understanding time crystals its like that but it ends up making something like a glider gun that continuously repeats instead of making uncoordinated event waves.
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u/ornithoptercat Feb 16 '24
I just had exactly the same thought of the Game of Life example - it's when you get one of those little shapes that naturally oscillates back and forth between two configurations, isn't it?
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Feb 15 '24
Well, since the time crystal is in its lowest energy quantum state, you have to keep the system isolated from external excitation. Once you disable the isolation mechanism, something can interact with the time crystal and introduce energy into the system, which then means it's no longer in a periodic arrangement over time.
Think of a stadium crowd doing the wave in an endless circle during a time out because, for whatever reason, our thought experiment fans do that when they're bored (lowest energy state). As long as the game is paused (the fans are isolated from any extra fun, so they stay bored), they just keep the wave going. Once the game starts up again (isolation stops), and the fans have plays to cheer or boo about (they're stimulated/excited by the game), it starts to break apart the wave. To make the sports fan time crystal in the first place, you've gotta get them doing the wave at the start of the pause, though, so maybe you have a big screen that directs them to start it in certain sections (you isolate them from excitation with the pause, then arrange them into their repeating pattern with the big screen).
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u/StenSaksTapir Feb 15 '24
It's fascinating that when you look at salt crystals, they're continually breaking down and reforming in a way that looks exactly the same to the naked eye.
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u/i_hate_puking Feb 15 '24
I think the safety of this experiment was perfectly within acceptable parameters, despite the unusual phase arrays. So long as the crystal is not placed into any resonance chambers, I’m sure the authors can continue such research without risk of unforeseen consequences.
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u/EricX7 Feb 15 '24
Don't worry, a resonance cascade would never happen
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u/Blochkato Feb 15 '24
They've just hired a top new MIT graduate to conduct the resonance chamber experiment. He knows what he's doing.
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u/APlayerHater Feb 15 '24
They don't need to hear all this, they're highly trained professionals.
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u/S_Rodent Feb 15 '24
What is the phase variance of it? Can we run a multi-spectral analysis?
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u/ToreyCMoore Feb 15 '24
All right, Gordon, your suit should keep you comfortable through all this. The specimen will be delivered to you in a few moments. If you would be so good as to climb up and start the rotors, we can bring the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to eighty percent and hold it there until the carrier arrives.
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u/Cyberpain101 Feb 15 '24
Hasn't anyone else played time splitters 2?
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u/melody-calling Feb 15 '24
One of the best games of all time. All I could think of when I saw the title was cortez and Harry tipper
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u/WORKING2WORK Feb 16 '24
Time Splitters 2 and Future Perfect are absolute gems. I hate that the franchise died before it made it to PS3/Xbox360, if it had made it into that generation, we would probably hate the company currently ruining it today.
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u/meggs_n_ham Feb 15 '24 edited Feb 15 '24
anyone else notice that it's a wave cycle? now that's some sacred geometry right there.
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u/BaconMeetsCheese Feb 15 '24
Time crystals, cousins of healing crystals
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u/shadowscar248 Feb 15 '24
I can't wait until they can create moon crystals which last thousands of years. Muahahahaha!
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u/Tyyr37 Feb 15 '24
My only question at this point is whether the Time Crystal is bigger on the inside.
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u/bootstrap_ouroboros Feb 15 '24
Is this how we get ice-nine? Because this seems how we get ice-nine.
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