Scientists at Lancaster University and Aalto University have created the first “time-crystal” two-body system in an experiment that seems to bend the laws of physics. A ‘two-level system’ is a basic building block of a quantum computer.
Time crystals were long believed to be impossible because they are made from atoms in never-ending motion. The discovery shows that not only can time crystals be created, but they have potential to be turned into useful devices.
Time crystals are different from a standard crystal which is composed of atoms arranged in a regularly repeating pattern in space. First theorised in 2012 by Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek and identified in 2016, time crystals exhibit the bizarre property of being in constant, repeating motion in time despite no external input. Their atoms are constantly oscillating, spinning, or moving first in one direction, and then the other.
The team observed time crystals by using Helium-3 which is a rare isotope of helium with one missing neutron. They cooled superfluid helium-3 to about one ten thousandth of a degree from absolute zero (0.0001K or -273.15°C). The researchers created two time crystals inside the superfluid, and brought them to touch. The scientists then watched the two time crystals interacting as described by quantum physics.
The paper has been published in Nature Communications.
