Scientists created the first "time crystal" binary system in an experiment that seemed to violate the laws of physics. This happened after the same team recently witnessed the first interaction of the new phase of matter. For a long time, time crystals have been considered impossible because they are composed of atoms in endless motion.
The discovery, published today in nature communications, shows that time crystals can not only be created, but also be transformed into useful devices.
Unlike standard crystals, such as metals or rocks, time crystals consist of atoms arranged in a regular repeating pattern in space.
The theory of time crystal was first put forward by Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek in 2012 and confirmed in 2016. It shows a strange characteristic - that is, it constantly repeats its movement in time although there is no external input. Their atoms oscillate, rotate, or move first in one direction and then in the other.
The first author of the paper from the Physics Department of Lancaster University EPSRC researcher Dr. Samuli autti said: "everyone knows that perpetual motion machines are impossible. However, in quantum physics, perpetual motion machines are possible as long as we close our eyes. By sneaking into this gap, we can make time crystals. It has been proved that putting the two together works well, even if the time crystals should not exist at the beginning. And we already know that they also exist at room temperature."
"Two-level system" is a basic component of quantum computer. Time crystals can be used to build quantum devices that work at room temperature.
An international research team from Lancaster University, Royal Holloway University in London, Landau Research Institute and the University of Alto in Helsinki observed time crystals using helium-3. Helium-3 is a rare helium isotope lacking a neutron.
It is reported that researchers cooled superfluid helium-3 to about one ten thousandth of absolute zero (0.0001k or -273.15 ℃). The researchers created two time crystals in superfluid and brought them into contact with each other. Then the scientists observed the interaction between the two time crystals, as described in quantum physics.