Time Crystals Are Real, But That Doesn't Mean Time Is Crystallized
“Still, time crystals as Wilczek originally envisioned them -- in systems in thermal equilibrium -- really do appear to be impossible. You have to have an open system, and the system needs to be driven at a periodic frequency with imperfections that aren't too large. Over-drive it, and the crystal will "melt," losing the properties that made it so interesting in a periodic fashion. We still haven't crystallized time, and likely never will. But the ability to make a system, that when all you do is pulse it in a particular way, returns, periodically, to a uniform state over and over again, is truly remarkable.”
When you think of crystals, you likely think of an interlocked, repeating lattice of atoms or molecules. That’s exactly what a conventional crystal is. But recently, there’s been an exciting new idea, first proposed by Frank Wilczek in 2012: that it would be possible to create a time crystal, an entirely new class of system. You might think that this means that time -- rather than atoms or molecules -- are crystallized, but that’s not quite right. Instead, particles that are coupled together would spontaneously return to the same state, breaking the symmetry known as time-translation invariance. A method for building one was proposed just last year, and already two independent teams have made it work!
Come get the story on time crystals, including what they are, how they work and what it might mean not just for physics, but for our future.