Materials

Scientists spot the telltale tick of a time crystal in a kid's toy

Scientists spot the telltale tick of a time crystal in a kid's toy
A monoammonium phosphate crystal, where Yale researchers have now found the telltale tick of a time crystal
A monoammonium phosphate crystal, where Yale researchers have now found the telltale tick of a time crystal
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The Yale team (from left) Jared Rovny, Robert Blum, and Sean Barrett, who discovered the time crystal signature
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The Yale team (from left) Jared Rovny, Robert Blum, and Sean Barrett, who discovered the time crystal signature
A monoammonium phosphate crystal, where Yale researchers have now found the telltale tick of a time crystal
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A monoammonium phosphate crystal, where Yale researchers have now found the telltale tick of a time crystal

A time crystal sounds like something from some high-concept science-fiction, but they're very real – and as new research reveals, you might have some in your home already. Scientists from Yale University have now spotted the signature of a time crystal in a common crystal that crops up in off-the-shelf crystal-growing kits for kids.

Crystals are characterized by a repeating pattern of atoms. In a regular crystal, the atoms repeat across space, forming a lattice structure. But in 2012, an MIT professor proposed the idea of a time crystal, whose atoms repeat across time instead. That means that their atomic spins flip back and forth in a kind of "ticking" motion that's locked to a certain frequency.

The strange thing is, this rhythm begins to fall out of step with the force that kicks it off, creating a system eerily like perpetual motion. The existence of time crystals was confirmed in 2016, when a UC Berkeley team created them for the first time in a lab experiment.

That inspired the Yale researchers to begin looking for the unique signatures of time crystals in other solids. Their first port of call was a crop of monoammonium phosphate (MAP) crystals, which grow so readily that they're often used in crystal-growing kits for kids. The team thought that time crystals would only form in crystals with more disorder to their atoms, but after peering inside these MAP crystals using nuclear magnetic resonance, they quickly found the fingerprints they were looking for.

The Yale team (from left) Jared Rovny, Robert Blum, and Sean Barrett, who discovered the time crystal signature
The Yale team (from left) Jared Rovny, Robert Blum, and Sean Barrett, who discovered the time crystal signature

"Our crystal measurements looked quite striking right off the bat," says Sean Barrett, principal investigator on the research. "Our work suggests that the signature of a discrete time crystal (DTC) could be found, in principle, by looking in a children's crystal growing kit."

The team conducted what they call a "time crystal echo" experiment, and were able to probe the hidden quantum order within the system. Their strange find raises more questions though: time crystals were created under very specific conditions in the UC Berkeley lab, but just how they're able to form naturally remains a mystery.

"It's too early to tell what the resolution will be for the current theory of discrete time crystals, but people will be working on this question for at least the next few years," says Barrett.

The research was published in two papers, appearing in the journals Physical Review Letters and Physical Review B.

Source: Yale University

7 comments
7 comments
chase
I believe they're completely bastardizing the term "time" in their equation. Or miss using it completely.
Paul Anthony
They should be looking at dilithium crystals.
BobMunck
A similar story to the discovery of buckyballs and carbon nanotubes. Their existence was postulated from the known characteristics of carbon, then they were actually created by an exacting laboratory procedure, then they were found to occur naturally and be EVERYWHERE.
Gregg Eshelman
Fire some antimatter at various types of these time crystals. See what happens.
judahis
I believe cycles, e.g., expanding/contracting universe, are a more elegant explanation than expanding until what? Does Occam's razor apply?
Paul Muad'Dib
Occam's razor says the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is.
Robert Schreib
Dear Sirs, Did any of these scientists who are researching time crystals see the big screen movie starring Reese Witherspoon, called "Sweet Home Alabama"? In that film they highlighted these glass spheres, which were lightning fulgerites, created by the not-to-be-replicated-in-a-laboratory, lightning bolts hitting the sand on Florida's coastline. Lightning fulgerites come in usually tubular shapes, and are sold on Amazon.com and elsewhere. The point is, a thunderbolt that creates these things can carry 30,000amps, and have 100 million volts of electric potential, and is hot. hot, hot at about 50, 000 degrees Fahrenheit. The glass spherical fulgerites in this movie looked like beautiful crystal balls, while most such fulgerites resemble some kind of mineral deposit. ANYWAY, what if these time crystal researchers obtains a few of those 'crystal balls' type fulgerites displayed in that film, and just PLAYED with it, shot their lasers through it, charged it with static electricity, etc., to see if these things got some kind of time crystal or quantum level effects build into them, which they could use to advance some related research? If these spheres could help to create a valid quantum computer, or enable very long distance quantum communications, that would be GREAT! And, because the sandy beaches of Florida are apparently the most common source of these particular forms of fulgerites, it could be a potentially great financial resource for that state as well. That covers it.