In a feat considered theoretically impossible , the physicist Shivaji Sondhi, who published an article in Physics Review Letters on the theoretical basis of how time crystals could exist, together with two teams of scientists from Harvard University and the University of Maryland ( USA) have managed to create time crystals. The scientific milestone has been published in the journal Nature.
In time crystals – whose existence was first suggested in 2012 – atoms repeat a pattern through the fourth dimension, time, unlike normal crystals (like a diamond) that have atoms arranged in a lattice. repeating three-dimensional. Thus, the atoms must oscillate forever without any external influence since the time crystal looks like a closed system.
One of the teams, the one from Harvard University, managed to create the time crystal with an artificial lattice on a synthetic diamond; The Maryland team used a chain of charged particles called ions of the element ytterbium to reach the same goal. Different paths, same goal. The atoms in the crystal were ‘pushed’ or ‘driven’ by laser pulses. Taking into account that normal crystals remain immobile because they are in their fundamental state and in equilibrium , time crystals, on the contrary, even in their fundamental state, continue to oscillate and never reach equilibrium, because their structure is not repeated in the space, but in time. And that repetitive oscillation does not need any energy.
“ This opens the door to a new world of non-equilibrium phases. We have taken these theoretical ideas that we have been exploring for the last two years and really get to build it in the lab. Hopefully, this is just the first example of them, with many more to come, “explains Andrew Potter of the University of Texas at Austin, who was also part of the team.
Discordant opinions
Professor Chetan Nayak of the University of California at Santa Barbara wrote that “based on our current knowledge, it had been natural to see if it was possible to spontaneously break the time-translational symmetry of the laws of physics but it is possible that the unusual motion The recoil seen in time crystals does not presumably last forever. Both groups present evidence for a time crystal but their combined results point to the need for experiments that truly show that oscillations remain in phase for long periods and are not eliminated by the inevitable fluctuations. “
The future of quantum computing
Quantum computing could be a reality thanks to these time crystals. Prototypes of quantum computers already exist, but they need to be strongly shielded from any minimal interference from the outside world. The crystals could help protect the stored information, overcoming one of the biggest obstacles to the widespread use of computers that s on millions of times faster than today.
