Time crystals are atoms that repeat themselves over time, unlike spatial crystals, where atoms are organized in a 3-dimensional lattice. This sounds impossible, and until recently this was believed to be the case. Atoms can spin or oscillate (rotate or vibrate) even in their ground state, where they contain as little energy as possible.
The blue line is the vibration of a time crystal with no additional energy.
This means that they would allow an infinite form of motion without added energy, which is not possible according to the laws of thermodynamics. Yet the existence of these time crystals has been proven by the second law of thermodynamics and a more or less disregard for the concept of entropy.
These two terms mean that a system becomes more disordered over time and this is completely irreversible. But in a time crystal, an atom can be affected without changing the entire system. This is only possible if the time crystals are completely isolated from their surroundings.
The vessel in which time crystals form.
A research team from Lancaster University and Aalto University in Finland has published a paper in Nature called “Nonlinear bi-level dynamics of quantum time crystals”. Explains how two time crystals are formed from helium-3 with a temperature 0.0001K above absolute zero at -273.15 degrees Celsius. Since helium becomes superfluid at this temperature, there is no loss of energy through friction. Time crystals can be connected and observed for more than 15 minutes.
This opens the possibilities for the next big revolution in quantum computing. In this way, a qubit network can be created that consumes extremely little energy. The researchers’ next step is to show that logical operations can be performed on these time crystals. The added complexity of extremely low temperatures can also be eliminated over time. It has already been shown that time crystals can also exist at room temperature.
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