Researchers present time crystals made of quantum mechanical oscillation
March 10, 2017 10:31 AM Subscribe
Ions oscillate in synchrony, but will do so only if there is some noise. Now, if all of this comes together in the right way, the ions start to oscillate between the ground state and their excited state at their natural frequency again. They cannot do this if only the original kick laser is used, nor if any two of the driving components are used. No, this only occurs if all three processes—a drive, coupling between the ions, and noise—are present.
Wikipedia: Space-time Crystal
A time crystal or space-time crystal is an open system in non-equilibrium with its environment that exhibits time translation symmetry breaking (TTSB). It is impossible for a time crystal to be in equilibrium with its environment.
Gizmodo: Scientists Finally Observed Time Crystals—But What the Hell Are They?
My first question was, “What is a time crystal?” Harvard graduate students Soonwon Choi, Joonhee Choi and postdoctoral researcher Renate Landig all started laughing. “That’s a very good question,” said Soonwon.
Berkeley News: Scientists unveil new form of matter: time crystals
If crystals have an atomic structure that repeats in space, like the carbon lattice of a diamond, why can’t crystals also have a structure that repeats in time? That is, a time crystal?
Wikipedia: Space-time Crystal
A time crystal or space-time crystal is an open system in non-equilibrium with its environment that exhibits time translation symmetry breaking (TTSB). It is impossible for a time crystal to be in equilibrium with its environment.
Gizmodo: Scientists Finally Observed Time Crystals—But What the Hell Are They?
My first question was, “What is a time crystal?” Harvard graduate students Soonwon Choi, Joonhee Choi and postdoctoral researcher Renate Landig all started laughing. “That’s a very good question,” said Soonwon.
Berkeley News: Scientists unveil new form of matter: time crystals
If crystals have an atomic structure that repeats in space, like the carbon lattice of a diamond, why can’t crystals also have a structure that repeats in time? That is, a time crystal?
Are they cubes?
posted by sexyrobot at 10:41 AM on March 10, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by sexyrobot at 10:41 AM on March 10, 2017 [25 favorites]
I have only the faintest grasp of what's going on here, but how is this not perpetual motion?
posted by dazed_one at 10:45 AM on March 10, 2017
posted by dazed_one at 10:45 AM on March 10, 2017
This reads as fragments of the script for the sequel (or prequel) (or perhaps the sequel and prequel exist along parallel time lines) to Primer.
posted by Wordshore at 10:47 AM on March 10, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by Wordshore at 10:47 AM on March 10, 2017 [8 favorites]
> Are they cubes?
No, they're more like donuts.
I believe the reason it's not perpetual motion is because you can't actually extract energy from it.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 10:50 AM on March 10, 2017 [4 favorites]
No, they're more like donuts.
I believe the reason it's not perpetual motion is because you can't actually extract energy from it.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 10:50 AM on March 10, 2017 [4 favorites]
I have only the faintest grasp of what's going on here, but how is this not perpetual motion?
Afaik, you have to keep zapping it with lasers to maintain the crystal. It's not perpetual motion if you have to keep giving it energy.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:00 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
Afaik, you have to keep zapping it with lasers to maintain the crystal. It's not perpetual motion if you have to keep giving it energy.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:00 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
Are they cubes?
I think Alex Chiu's name is on one of those papers.
posted by k5.user at 11:05 AM on March 10, 2017
I think Alex Chiu's name is on one of those papers.
posted by k5.user at 11:05 AM on March 10, 2017
This exact thing is the science-macguffin in Chain Reaction.
posted by mhoye at 11:10 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 11:10 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
can we use this to keep time between discrete systems?
posted by Annika Cicada at 12:36 PM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Annika Cicada at 12:36 PM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
Are they cubes?
Sadly all that remains is the Time Cube wiki page, and for how long? Only the 4th dimensional time crystal entity knows.
posted by w0mbat at 12:54 PM on March 10, 2017 [4 favorites]
Sadly all that remains is the Time Cube wiki page, and for how long? Only the 4th dimensional time crystal entity knows.
posted by w0mbat at 12:54 PM on March 10, 2017 [4 favorites]
What I want to know is can I use a time crystal to return to my original timeline? This timeline is going off the rails.
I want to go home.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 2:15 PM on March 10, 2017 [15 favorites]
I want to go home.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 2:15 PM on March 10, 2017 [15 favorites]
Can we please page physicsmatt or someone to break this down because I desperately need something cool to be excited about these days.
posted by lazaruslong at 3:28 PM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by lazaruslong at 3:28 PM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
"Some noise?" Have they tried this track? That's where I'd start if the goal is to open up the interdimensional portal.
posted by sfenders at 3:37 PM on March 10, 2017
posted by sfenders at 3:37 PM on March 10, 2017
I try to rtfa, but it all turns into an episode of Doctor Who and I think Time Crystals are how Delgado Master chills his space martinis.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:47 PM on March 10, 2017
posted by betweenthebars at 7:47 PM on March 10, 2017
I've been a) hoping this time wasn't a hoax, and b) hoping it would show up here soon. Thanks for posting this!
posted by Room 641-A at 8:01 PM on March 10, 2017
posted by Room 641-A at 8:01 PM on March 10, 2017
at the end of the movie the neverending story, there's this scene where the girl holds a tiny shiny crystalline fragment in the palm of her hand and explains that this solitary thing is all that's left of the entire universe. in a silent, smoky room in 2002, my college roommate looked at the tv, looked back at me, put down his bong, and asked me reverently..... "Can we smoke it?"
i think time crystals are probably those things.
posted by wibari at 9:48 PM on March 10, 2017
i think time crystals are probably those things.
posted by wibari at 9:48 PM on March 10, 2017
I don't think I quite have the full picture, but my best understanding of the analogy between regular crystals and time crystals comes from the discussion of broken symmetries on the wikipedia page.
In a gas, the particles exhibit translational symmetry, which is to say that they can move freely and occupy any particular point in space in a smooth continuum. A crystal breaks that symmetry and requires that it's atoms occupy particular locations, which gives rise to the crystal lattice.
The time crystals discussed here are an extension of that idea to time as well as location. The idea is that you get some matter into a very particular state such that the atoms are required to be not just in a particular location, but in a particular location at a particular time. That gives rise to a four-dimensional "crystal" analogous to the conventional three-dimensional crystals we're familiar with.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 10:58 AM on March 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
In a gas, the particles exhibit translational symmetry, which is to say that they can move freely and occupy any particular point in space in a smooth continuum. A crystal breaks that symmetry and requires that it's atoms occupy particular locations, which gives rise to the crystal lattice.
The time crystals discussed here are an extension of that idea to time as well as location. The idea is that you get some matter into a very particular state such that the atoms are required to be not just in a particular location, but in a particular location at a particular time. That gives rise to a four-dimensional "crystal" analogous to the conventional three-dimensional crystals we're familiar with.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 10:58 AM on March 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by vibratory manner of working
Ionysterical!
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:17 AM on March 11, 2017 [6 favorites]
Ionysterical!
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:17 AM on March 11, 2017 [6 favorites]
can we use this to keep time between discrete systems?
If the systems are isolated, you can just use some kind of clock.
posted by sebastienbailard at 4:53 PM on March 11, 2017
If the systems are isolated, you can just use some kind of clock.
posted by sebastienbailard at 4:53 PM on March 11, 2017
the issue is that time synchronization across systems is really really difficult to actually achieve to a microsecond degree of accuracy over time in large,multi-region, globally distributed digital systems. The reasons are due to microscopic flaws in the crystals that are used to set local clocks in each chipset. I've been trying to work out another way to build out a time synchronizer (for large scale data centers) and never really considered quantum properties as a remotely viable way to do this.
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:36 AM on March 14, 2017
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:36 AM on March 14, 2017
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posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:38 AM on March 10, 2017 [8 favorites]