The quest to crystallize time

@article{Gibney2017TheQT,
  title={The quest to crystallize time},
  author={Elizabeth Gibney},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2017},
  volume={543},
  pages={164-166},
  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:4460265}
}
Bizarre forms of matter called time crystals were supposed to be physically impossible. Now they’re not. 
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13 Citations
Background Citations
3

13 Citations

Observation of a Time Quasicrystal and Its Transition to a Superfluid Time Crystal.

We report experimental realization of a quantum time quasicrystal and its transformation to a quantum time crystal. We study Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons, associated with coherent spin…

AC Josephson effect between two superfluid time crystals

Two adjacent quantum time crystals implemented by two magnon condensates in the superfluid B-phase of helium-3 are observed to coherently exchange magnons as a manifestation of the AC Josephson effect, offering insights on the dynamics and interactions between these phases of matter.

Route to Extend the Lifetime of a Discrete Time Crystal in a Finite Spin Chain without Disorder

Periodically driven (Floquet) systems are described by time-dependent Hamiltonians that possess discrete time translation symmetry. The spontaneous breaking of this symmetry leads to the emergence of…

Spatiotemporal vortex rings in atomic Bose–Einstein condensates

We investigate spatiotemporal vortex rings with phase dislocation both in space and time. It is demonstrated that these structures naturally appear as a periodical in time edge phase dislocation at…

The Effect of the Initial Structure on the System Relaxation Time in Langevin Dynamics

It is found that for an initial structure, which is inhomogeneous in the number density of atoms, the system relaxation time, τsys, is longer, often by more than an order of magnitude, compared to that for the homogeneous initial structure.

Nonlocal quantum computing theory and Poincare cycle in spherical states

Four new fundamental nonlocal quantum computing diagonal operator-state relations are derived which model the interaction between two adjacent atoms of an entangled atomic chain. Each atom possesses…

Integrable Floquet QFT: Elasticity and factorization under periodic driving

In (1+1)-dimensional quantum field theory, integrability is typically defined as the existence of an infinite number of local charges of different Lorentz spin, which commute with the Hamiltonian. A…

Integrable Floquet QFT: Elasticity and factorization under periodic driving

In (1+1)-dimensional quantum field theory, integrability is typically defined as the existence of an infinite number of local charges of different Lorentz spin, which commute with the Hamiltonian. A…

Correlations in circular quantum cascades

We introduce a one-way, one-quantum cascade, whereby a single excitation proceeds one-directionwise in a ladder of energy levels. This makes a variation from more famous two-way cascades where the…

Trial wave functions for ring-trapped ions and neutral atoms: Microscopic description of the quantum space-time crystal

A constructive theoretical platform for the description of quantum space-time crystals uncovers for $N$ interacting and ring-confined rotating particles the existence of low-lying states with proper…

6 References

Floquet Time Crystals.

This work defines what it means for time translation symmetry to be spontaneously broken in a quantum system and shows that this occurs in a large class of many-body localized driven systems with discrete time-translation symmetry.

Quantum time crystals.

Some subtleties and apparent difficulties associated with the notion of spontaneous breaking of time-translation symmetry in quantum mechanics are identified and resolved. A model exhibiting that…

Absence of Quantum Time Crystals.

A no-go theorem is proved that rules out the possibility of time crystals defined as such, in the ground state or in the canonical ensemble of a general Hamiltonian, which consists of not-too-long-range interactions.

Observation of a discrete time crystal

The experimental observation of a discrete time crystal, in an interacting spin chain of trapped atomic ions, is presented, which opens the door to the study of systems with long-range spatio-temporal correlations and novel phases of matter that emerge under intrinsically non-equilibrium conditions.

Phase Structure of Driven Quantum Systems.

It is shown that their disordered Floquet many-body localized counterparts can exhibit distinct ordered phases delineated by sharp transitions, and these are analogs of equilibrium states with broken symmetries and topological order.

Observation of discrete time-crystalline order in a disordered dipolar many-body system

This work observes long-lived temporal correlations, experimentally identifies the phase boundary and finds that the temporal order is protected by strong interactions, which opens the door to exploring dynamical phases of matter and controlling interacting, disordered many-body systems.