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Time Crystals: New Form Or State Of Matter

EnolaGaia

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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Scientists unveil new form of matter: Time crystals

Physicists repeatedly tweaked a group of ions to create first example of a non-equilibrium material

To most people, crystals mean diamond bling, semiprecious gems or perhaps the jagged amethyst or quartz crystals beloved by collectors.

To Norman Yao, these inert crystals are the tip of the iceberg.

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?

In a paper published online last week in the journal Physical Review Letters, the University of California, Berkeley assistant professor of physics describes exactly how to make and measure the properties of such a crystal, and even predicts what the various phases surrounding the time crystal should be -- akin to the liquid and gas phases of ice.

...
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FULL STORY: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-01/uoc--sun012617.php
 
More on time crystals ...

Time Crystals Created, Suspending Laws of Physics

A bizarre new state of matter known as a time crystal seems to suspend the laws of thermodynamics almost indefinitely, two new experiments suggest.

The time crystal is essentially a collection of atoms or ions that are far apart but still interacting with each other. This form of matter keeps "ticking" indefinitely at a certain frequency, without heating up or creating entropy, the natural state of disorder that always increases in the universe. Time crystals work because of quantum effects, or the bizarre rules describing the menagerie of tiny subatomic particles.
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SOURCE: http://www.livescience.com/58171-time-crystals-created-in-the-lab.html
 
This recent research suggests time crystals may be found in a wider range of crystalline materials than previously suspected ...

Physicists find signs of a time crystal
Physicists have uncovered hints of a time crystal -- a form of matter that 'ticks' when exposed to an electromagnetic pulse -- in the last place they expected: a crystal you might find in a child's toy. ...

Yale physicists have uncovered hints of a time crystal -- a form of matter that "ticks" when exposed to an electromagnetic pulse -- in the last place they expected: a crystal you might find in a child's toy.

The discovery means there are now new puzzles to solve, in terms of how time crystals form in the first place. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180502120013.htm
 
EnolaGaia said:
This recent research suggests time crystals may be found in a wider range of crystalline materials than previously suspected
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In what way is this not a non-contact version of the well-understood piezoelectric effect, resonance at fundamental frequencies, of quartz and ceramics (as in reference oscillators/filters/sounders)? I need to re-read the references..."time" crystals....hmm.

Transductive (or otherwise), and, irrespective of it being Ivy League physics, I'm sensing a need for a reappreciation on my part as to whether this is substantively-novel research, or refried beans.
 
I, too, am still laboring to wrap my head around the novelty in these time crystals ...

My understanding is that ordinary crystals are physical structures in an equilibrium state (i.e., they are physically 'frozen' structurally).

Time crystals' structures are in a non-equilibrium state, and recursively change / shift / oscillate for so long as the non-equilibrium structural system is maintained. Such changes repeat in a specific pattern and (if I'm not mistaken) at a specific rate of change.
 
Ermintruder said:
In what way is this not a non-contact version of the well-understood piezoelectric effect, resonance at fundamental frequencies, of quartz and ceramics (as in reference oscillators/filters/sounders)? I need to re-read the references..."time" crystals....hmm.

Transductive (or otherwise), and, irrespective of it being Ivy League physics, I'm sensing a need for a reappreciation on my part as to whether this is substantively-novel research, or refried beans.
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Yeah, I'm struggling to understand how this is different from quartz crystals being used in watches.
 
Intriguing....I was totally-thrown by the "monoammonium phosphate" (MAP) name for the crystalline structure. However, the (to my ears, more logical) alternative name for that sounds like being ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (Wiki disagrees me completely, on the very shaky grounds that the initial letters ADP will get mistaken for being an alternative compound).

Anyway, the good Wiki page for it (at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_dihydrogen_phosphate ) which I've not read until now, states the following:

"ADP crystals are piezoelectric, a property required in some active sonar transducers (the alternative being transducers that use magnetostriction). In the 1950s ADP crystals largely replaced the quartz and Rochelle salt crystals in transducers because they are easier to work than Quartz and, unlike Rochelle Salt, are not deliquescent".

I'm no expert, but that reference ties-in exactly with what @Mythopoeika and I are saying our instinctive understanding was on this beforehand (perhaps also @EnolaGaia too?).

Intriguingly there is absolutely no reference to "time crystals" in the Wiki page about ADP/MAP. That, of course means nothing, as I could add it right now. But why is this not already included, as relevant information, if this is supposedly going to be a massively-important area of defence-funded research?

Something is just not making sense here....from the key reference above https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180502120013.htm the following statement is made:
Ordinary crystals such as salt or quartz are examples of three-dimensional, ordered spatial crystals. Their atoms are arranged in a repeating system, something scientists have known for a century.

So this implies that ADP is NOT an "ordinary crystal"...and yet the mainstream Wiki page categorically-states that it has been used for decades as a direct substitute for quartz &c, and displays all the required characteristics of those ordinary crystalline substances.

This gets stranger the deeper you dig....
 
I'm not understanding your focus on piezoelectric capability versus time crystals as if this is some critical issue ...
 
My point is that if the key characteristic that defines these recently-discovered 'time crystals' of MAP/ADP is that "their atoms spin periodically, first in one direction and then in another, as a pulsating force is used to flip them", how is that consistent with the reported fact that this material has also been used to replace conventional 'lattice' crystals such as quartz for nearly 70yrs?

Put another way, it seems decidedly-odd that at an atomic level, these crystals are being described as almost being non-crystalline...and yet they 'piezo' like their latticed fellows.

This may (on my part) just be an example of a little knowledge being dangerous. But I'm really (seriously) not understanding what is being attempted to be explained in the article.

I will try again, but via alternative/parallel sources (as a statement such as: Another unexpected thing happened, as well. "We realized that just finding the DTC signature didn't necessarily prove that the system had a quantum memory of how it came to be," said Yale graduate student Robert Blum, a co-author on the studies. "This spurred us to try a time crystal 'echo,' which revealed the hidden coherence, or quantum order, within the system," added Rovny, also a Yale graduate student and lead author of the studies" does not help me understand the physical processes...it just fruitlessly intrigues me).
 
Ermintruder said:
My point is that if the key characteristic that defines these recently-discovered 'time crystals' of MAP/ADP is that "their atoms spin periodically, first in one direction and then in another, as a pulsating force is used to flip them", how is that consistent with the reported fact that this material has also been used to replace conventional 'lattice' crystals such as quartz for nearly 70yrs?
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Part of the problem is that some of the research results refer to 'time crystals' being detected / demonstrated within a subset of crystalline material. This implies that qualifying as a 'time crystal' is somehow predicated on a characteristic that may not be universally distributed throughout the set or mass of crystalline material within which they are claimed to exist.

My working hunch is that whatever subset of the mass qualifies as a 'time crystal' is ascribed as such based on one or more characteristics physically evident in a context (scale, etc.) distinguishable from that in which the 'ordinary' characteristics of the overall mass are similarly physically evident. To the extent I can fathom what I've read to date, this distinction seems (at least in part) to relate to the scalar level at which the characteristic(s) cited are manifest or detected.

For example, piezoelectric effects are manifest at the molecular / gross structural level of granularity, whereas the characteristics cited as evidence of 'time crystals' (e.g., spin direction) are manifest at the (sub?)atomic level of granularity.


Ermintruder said:
Put another way, it seems decidedly-odd that at an atomic level, these crystals are being described as almost being non-crystalline...and yet they 'piezo' like their latticed fellows. ...
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I'm not sure this last ('piezo') bit is true. I've not yet found any discussion of 'time crystals' that clearly addresses their capacity for piezoelectric effects. This is one of the factoids I've been trying to track down ...

Another possible distinguishing factor concerns symmetry in the crystalline structure. Piezoelectric effects are supposedly peculiar to crystal structures that do not exhibit inversion symmetry (aka centrosymmetry). I've yet to locate any clear claim concerning 'time crystals' and inversion symmetry. The closest things I've found to date are passing mentions that 'time crystals' break symmetry, including inversion symmetry. I'm still unclear as to whether such allusions to breaking inversion symmetry do or do not mean that there's some positive or negative correlation between qualifying as a 'time crystal' and exhibiting inversion symmetry.
 
EnolaGaia said:
This implies that qualifying as a 'time crystal' is somehow predicated on a characteristic that may not be universally distributed throughout the set or mass of crystalline material within which they are claimed to exist.
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Fascinating. So, almost like a semi-discrete inclusion or accretion, but within a crystalline substrate? (as opposed to inside a stone).

But critically: an effect that is contained yet externally-accessible. And (again, essentially in metaphor) almost an 'alloy' enabled via the molecular interaction.

EnolaGaia said:
For example, piezoelectric effects are manifest at the molecular / gross structural level of granularity
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Indeed, this is how I'd always imagined the effect from a stereochemical perspective. Billions of molecular cross-connects, in an XYZ matrix, analogous to a massive serial-parallel multicell array, forming a battery (in a micro-recaptulates-macro style). And when subjected to a physical compression/tension/vibration, the creation of a commensurate piezovoltaic charge differential between selected faces (and in extremity, the generation of a substantial voltage in piezo flame ignition systems).

EnolaGaia said:
I'm not sure this last ('piezo') bit is true. I've not yet found any discussion of 'time crystals' that clearly addresses their capacity for piezoelectric effects.
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Perhaps there's some kind of connective facilitation going on, such that there are nano-voltaic differences that repeatedly reach a generative threshold (as in a conventional PE crystal) but then do not serially-accrue across the ionic bond infrastructure: instead, these may cause intra-resonances, which in of themselves regenerate PE effects. And the rate at which this closed-loop quasi-stable effect occurs is somehow an elemental function of the overall observable phenomenon?

And of course...all this can only add to the parascientific fascination with (and meta-attributioning thereupon) crystals in general. The counter to which would, of course, be that emergent discoveries can ultimately show that truths can often beat supposition.
 
Ermintruder said:
Fascinating. So, almost like a semi-discrete inclusion or accretion, but within a crystalline substrate? (as opposed to inside a stone).

But critically: an effect that is contained yet externally-accessible. And (again, essentially in metaphor) almost an 'alloy' enabled via the molecular interaction. ...
Click to expand...

I don't know for certain ... The references to ID-ing 'time crystals' as a subset of whatever crystalline material is being studied aren't clear (to me ... ) in differentiating between their occurrence as (a) a region within a continuous / contiguous crystalline array versus (b) these or those discrete crystal chunks among a pile of such chunks.
 
EnolaGaia said:
The references to ID-ing 'time crystals' as a subset of whatever crystalline material is being studied aren't clear (to me ... )
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Agreed, the descriptions are oddly-vague (as well they might be).

And yet...
The researchers used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to look for a DTC signature -- and quickly found it. "Our crystal measurements looked quite striking right off the bat," Barrett said
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(This was, strongly by implication, within a crystal that was not doped with a secondary element, to become a semiconductor...and presumably was silicon-only? Or are they then subsequently just talking in principle? An odd paragraph...)
 
At least some of the ambiguity may derive from our taking the descriptions too literally. A 'time crystal' is, after all, a sort of abstracted meta-description for a physically manifest thing, as opposed to the physical thing per se.
 
I would expect that the 'time crystal' title will be a multi-edged sword. It's a pop-sci editor's dream, a grad prof's bon mot, and a research funder's door-closer.

So saying...I've always tended to consider theoretical physics to be mainly cosmological, astronomical or mathematical (and in that order). It's refreshing for there to be boundary-line discoveries made, like this, in physical chemistry.

And...states of matter. Including (appropriately in the crystalline context) the classic term "solid state". I need to understand quite where this sits....
"even predicts what the various phases surrounding the time crystal should be -- akin to the liquid and gas phases of ice".
 
An update and broader review of time crystals, which seem to be attracting interest from multiple fields ...
Appreciating the classical elegance of time crystals

Date:September 19, 2019
Source:ETH Zurich Department of Physics

Summary:Structures known as 'time crystals' -- which repeat in time as conventional crystals repeat in space -- have recently captured the interest and imagination of researchers across disciplines. The concept has emerged from the context of quantum many-body systems, but physicists have now developed a versatile framework that clarifies connections to classical works dating back nearly two centuries, thus providing a unifying platform to explore seemingly dissimilar phenomena.
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FULL STORY: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190919142225.htm
 
For the first time physicists have generated and observed an interaction between two time crystals. If time crystals can coherently interact without sacrificing their respective internal coherence it opens up multiple possibilities for employing them to (e.g.) regulate quantum information processing systems.
For The First Time, Physicists Have Controlled The Interaction of Time Crystals

The existence of time crystals - a particularly fascinating state of matter - was only confirmed a few short years ago, but physicists have already made a pretty major breakthrough: they have induced and observed an interaction between two time crystals.

In a helium-3 superfluid, two time crystals exchanged quasiparticles without disrupting their coherence; an achievement that, the researchers say, opens up possibilities for emerging fields such as quantum information processing, where coherence is of vital importance.

"Controlling the interaction of two time crystals is a major achievement. Before this, nobody had observed two time crystals in the same system, let alone seen them interact," said physicist and lead author Samuli Autti of Lancaster University in the UK.

"Controlled interactions are the number one item on the wish list of anyone looking to harness a time crystal for practical applications, such as quantum information processing." ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-made-time-crystals-interact-for-the-first-time
 
Scientists Observe “Time Crystals” Interacting With Each Other

www.futurism.com
17 August, 2020

Not even a decade ago, scientists discovered a bizarre new state of matter in which atoms arranged themselves in a repeating pattern, similar to what you’d find in a crystal metal or rock.

But rather than only being arranged in a pattern in space, these atoms were in constant motion over time as well. And that’s how they got their fantastical name: “time crystals.”

The unusual phenomenon has only been observed a handful of times since synthesizing time crystals for the first time — but now, an international team of researchers have achieved the next breakthrough: they’ve observed two time crystals interacting with each other.

“Controlling the interaction of two time crystals is a major achievement,” Samuli Autti from Lancaster University, lead author of an article about the work published in the journal Nature Materials, said in a statement. “Before this, nobody had observed two time crystals in the same system, let alone seen them interact.”

[...]

https://futurism.com/scientists-observe-time-crystals-interacting-with-each-other
 
Comfortably Numb said:
Scientists Observe “Time Crystals” Interacting With Each Other

www.futurism.com
17 August, 2020

Not even a decade ago, scientists discovered a bizarre new state of matter in which atoms arranged themselves in a repeating pattern, similar to what you’d find in a crystal metal or rock.

But rather than only being arranged in a pattern in space, these atoms were in constant motion over time as well. And that’s how they got their fantastical name: “time crystals.”

The unusual phenomenon has only been observed a handful of times since synthesizing time crystals for the first time — but now, an international team of researchers have achieved the next breakthrough: they’ve observed two time crystals interacting with each other.

“Controlling the interaction of two time crystals is a major achievement,” Samuli Autti from Lancaster University, lead author of an article about the work published in the journal Nature Materials, said in a statement. “Before this, nobody had observed two time crystals in the same system, let alone seen them interact.”

[...]

https://futurism.com/scientists-observe-time-crystals-interacting-with-each-other
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Cool :D
 
For the first time researchers have been able to record a visual record of a time crystal's oscillation.
For The First Time, Physicists Have Filmed The Oscillation of a Time Crystal

For the first time, physicists have captured an enigmatic state of matter on video.

Using a scanning transmission X-ray microscope, the research team has recorded the oscillations of a time crystal made out of magnons at room temperature. This, they said, is a significant breakthrough in the study of time crystals.

"We were able to show that such space-time crystals are much more robust and widespread than first thought," said physicist Pawel Gruszecki of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland.

"Our crystal condenses at room temperature and particles can interact with it - unlike in an isolated system. Moreover, it has reached a size that could be used to do something with this magnonic space-time crystal. This may result in many potential applications." ...

To study time crystals, scientists often use ultra-cold Bose-Einstein condensates of magnon quasiparticles. Magnons are not true particles, but consist of a collective excitation of the spin of electrons - like a wave that propagates through a lattice of spins.

The research team led by Gruszecki and his colleague, physics doctoral student Nick Träger of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany, did something different. They placed a strip of magnetic permalloy on an antenna through which they could send a radiofrequency current.

That current produced an oscillating magnetic field on the strip, with magnetic waves travelling onto it from both ends; these waves stimulated the magnons in the strip, and these moving magnons then condensed into a repeating pattern.

"We took the regularly recurring pattern of magnons in space and time, sent more magnons in, and they eventually scattered," Träger said. "Thus, we were able to show that the time crystal can interact with other quasiparticles. No one has yet been able to show this directly in an experiment, let alone in a video." ...
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FULL STORY (With Dynamic Graphic Illustration):
https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-the-first-ever-video-of-a-time-crystal-oscillating

 
It being quantum maybe this should go in Random Oz.

Physicists in Australia have programmed a quantum computer half a world away to make, or at least simulate, a record-size time crystal—a system of quantum particles that locks into a perpetual cycle in time, somewhat akin to the repeating spatial pattern of atoms in an actual crystal.

The new time crystal comprises 57 quantum particles, more than twice the size of a 20-particle time crystal simulated last year by scientists at Google. That’s so big that no conventional computer could simulate it, says Chetan Nayak, a condensed matter physicist at Microsoft, who was not involved in the work. “So that’s definitely an important advance.” The work shows the power of quantum computers to simulate complex systems that may otherwise exist only in physicists’ theories.

The notion of a time crystal emerged 10 years ago, when Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize–winning theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mused about an ordinary crystal’s striking spatial pattern of atoms. Where does the pattern come from? It’s not explicitly specified by the equations for the forces among the atoms, which would seem to allow any atom to be anywhere with equal probability. Rather, it emerges spontaneously if the atoms cool sufficiently. Once a few of the atoms nestle next to one another, then the position of the next one becomes predictable, and a pattern that’s only implicit in the forces emerges. ...

https://www.science.org/content/article/physicists-produce-biggest-time-crystal-yet
 
Physicists have succeeded in connecting two time crystals so that both of them evade the quantum state disintegration that has prevented deeper study of their nature. The pair exhibit two states during their mutual persistence, suggesting possible utility for quantum computing.
Physicists link two time crystals in seemingly impossible experiment

Physicists have created a system of two connected time crystals, which are strange quantum systems that are stuck in an endless loop to which the normal laws of thermodynamics do not apply. By connecting two time crystals together, the physicists hope to use the technology to eventually build a new kind of quantum computer.

"It is a rare privilege to explore a completely novel phase of matter," Samuli Autti, the lead scientist on the project from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, told Live Science in an email. ...

In the new study, Autti and his team used "magnons" to build their time crystal. Magnons are "quasiparticles," which emerge in the collective state of a group of atoms. In this case, the team of physicists took helium-3 — a helium atom with two protons but only one neutron — and cooled it to within a ten-thousandth of a degree above absolute zero. At that temperature, the helium-3 transformed into a Bose-Einstein condensate, where all the atoms share a common quantum state and work in concert with each other.

In that condensate, all the spins of the electrons in the helium-3 linked up and worked together, generating waves of magnetic energy, the magnons. These waves sloshed back and forth forever, making them a time crystal.

Autti's team took two groups of magnons, each one operating as its own time crystal, and brought them close enough to influence each other. The combined system of magnons acted as one time crystal with two different states.

Autti's team hopes that their experiments can clarify the relationship between quantum and classical physics. Their goal is to build time crystals that interact with their environments without the quantum states disintegrating, allowing the time crystal to keep running while it is used for something else. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/time-crystals-linked
 
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