Official: We have a new physical state: time crystal

The thing to do now is to create them, and apply them to quantum computers.

Earlier this year, physicists drew a guide to how to create and measure "time crystals", a strange state of matter with atomic structures, not just repeat in space but also in time, allowing them to maintain a constant state of vibration without energy.

In January of this year, two research teams also created a material that looked very much like a time crystal, both experiments were carefully reviewed, making the "impossible" gradually existing. Clear in the real world like never before.

Official: We have a new physical state: time crystal Picture 1

" We have put the idea on the hypothesis, the ideas that we have studied over the last few years and actually built something like that in the lab , " said researcher Andrew Potter from the University of Texas. good. " Hopefully, with this first prototype, there will be many other successful experiments conducted . "

Time crystals are one of the coolest things that modern physics brings to us, because they open up a whole new world of a non-equilibrium-named non-equilibrium. , a period completely different from anything scientists have studied in the past. For decades, we have studied materials such as metals or insulators - things that are classified as "equilibrium", the state of which all the atoms in them have an amount of heat. certain.

But diamond crystals are the first prototype of an " unbalanced " thing - a completely different state and they themselves can revolutionize the way we store and circulate information through quantitative systems. death. "It shows us that the state of matter is still much more diverse than we know ," said Norman Yao, a physicist from the University of California.

" One of the standards of physics is to understand what types of matter exist in nature. This non-equilibrium state represents an entirely new field, completely different from what we are. have studied in the past ".

This time crystal was first shown to light by a theoretical physicist, who won the Nobel Prize in 2012, Frank Wilczek. He said that in theory, a physical structure (like that of a time crystal) would have moved even in their lowest energy state - the ground state.

Official: We have a new physical state: time crystal Picture 2

Normally, when a material is in a basic state, it is theoretically impossible to move , because movement requires energy - something that does not exist in a ground state. But Wilczek anticipated that an object could move even though they were in a fundamental state, by constantly aligning the atoms within them constantly, doing it over and over again - that is, getting them out of their state. Basically and then back again, forming a continuous loop.

This is not an element that makes up the eternal engine - some machines never stop, because energy does not exist inside this system. But there is still another reason that makes this hypothesis sound . impossible.

It refers to a system that breaks one of the most famous, fundamental assumptions of modern physics (assuming but still fundamental), that time symmetry - which sets rules physics, all the same everywhere, every time. The symmetry of translational time is the reason why we cannot do the following: the first time a coin is tossed, the ratio will be 50/50 but the second time toss that coin up, we will have 70/30 ratio.

Yet there are objects that can break that symmetry when they are in a basic state, the important point is that they do not break a physical law. Examples are magnets with a north pole and a south pole (anode and cathode). It is not clear how the magnet " decides " which pole belongs to itself, but the fact that it has both polarities means that it will no longer be the same in another dimension - it will be asymmetrical.

Another example of asymmetry is a crystal, with their repeating structural pattern. But despite continuous repetition, the atoms inside are " desirable " inside the mesh of the other crystal. So if you look at a crystal in a cosmic environment, it will take a different shape - the laws of physics will no longer be symmetrical, because it does not apply the same in different spaces.

Official: We have a new physical state: time crystal Picture 3

With such notions of different matter in different dimensions, Wilczek mentioned that creating an object that can create an asymmetric ground state is not only different in space ( like magnets or crystals) but also in time.

In other words, will atoms "want" exist in other states at different time intervals? Fast forward to the present time, US and Japanese researchers have proved that this is possible, with a minor edit in Wilczek's mention - to make the crystal transition constantly, sometimes they need to be "nudged" lightly.

In the January study, Norman Yao described how such a system was created, saying it was a "weaker" version of the imbalance, compared to what Wilczek had imagined.

"It's like I'm playing a rope jump, when my hand turns twice and the string turns only once, " Yao said, adding that in the trial version of Wilczek, the jump rope will be able to capable of self-oscillation. " It is less anomaly than the original idea (of the other Wilczek), but still has to admit it is weird .

Two teams of individual researchers, one from the University of Maryland and one from Harvard University, conducted research and testing of Wilczek's design, creating two different time versions of crystals that all have congenial.

" Both systems are great. They all have a very different aspect. I think both are extremely commendable ," Yao said. " I don't think any of them are better. They both represent two different aspects of physics. What is truly amazing is that you can see the same strange phenomenon in two different systems. " .

The research team at the University of Maryland created their time crystal by arranging a sequence of 10 elemental Ytebi ions (yttebium), all confusing with electron revolutions.

Official: We have a new physical state: time crystal Picture 4
The ion chain of the University of Maryland.

The key to turning the other system into a time crystal is to keep the ions out of balance, and to do that, the researchers fired two lasers at them. A ray creates a magnetic field and the second ray reverses the rotation of the atom.

Because the rotation of atoms is entangled with each other, atoms are arranged into a stable, repetitive pattern that defines the properties of a crystal. However, to be able to turn into a time crystal, it had to do a very strange thing: the rotation and flip speed of this system was only half as fast as a laser circuit.

" Will you shake a jelly and discover that it responds to vibrations for a while? " Yao explained.

And Harvard University's time crystal was created in another way: they used diamond crystals filled with nitro impurities. And the experiment results gave them black time crystals.

Official: We have a new physical state: time crystal Picture 5
Black diamond crystal of Harvard.

The rotation of these impurities can be turned over and over as the rotation of Ytebi ions in the University of Maryland test.

This is an interesting time for the physical world: finally, the time crystal state has been officially recognized, because both tests have passed the censorship stage. Now that we know that these states really exist, we will be able to embark on making and applying them in practice.

One of the first applications of time crystal that we think of right away is quantum computer technology. It will allow physicists to create a stable quantum system with a much higher temperature than before. Perhaps, this is the step we need for quantum computers to come out to the public as " a person who is welcome everywhere, everywhere " by society .

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