Strange ‘Time Crystals’ are finally visible

Time crystal is a form of matter that shows continuous, repeating patterns over time, similar to atoms in normal crystal repetition in space. Examples once existed only in complex, quantum matter, But now physicists have found a way to make a time crystal that, under certain conditions, can be seen with the naked eye.

The feat, performed by physicists at Colorado Boulder University, and published in Nature materials September 4¹They included liquid crystals-shaped rods with properties between fluid and those in the croutine. Simply shining light on liquid crystals, the team created through them the waves of twisting molecules. The cracks were constantly moving for hours, rolling with a distinct pace, even when researchers changed the conditions. The rhythm was also out of synchronization with any incoming force – filling two criteria of defining during crystal.

Although one of these behaviors of liquid crystals was already known, no one had previously thought about whether it could be used during crystals, says Young-Kim, a material scientist at the University of Science and Technology in South Korea.

The macroscopic scale of crystal time – on millimeters up to inches via – creates the possibility of “providing a deeper understanding” of phenomena, he says. Differential patterns in crystals could also allow them to be used in cognition devices, the authors say.

Impossible machines

Nobel’s assigned physicist Frank Wilczek First suggested the idea of ​​a time crystal In 2012, Wilczek’s version was almost like a permanent driver; something that is an endless vehicle while he was in his natural rest. Tim later published a work that mathematically proved that this concept was impossible²But researchers soon found that other types of crystals were possible. Ordered time crystals Could exist, for example, in bizarre systems that were constantly underwaynot at rest.

Time crystals have since been made in different ways, using interaction Damage to the nanosperable diamonds, captured ions and simulated on Google’s Sycamore Quantum computer. But most examples were on a microscopic scale.

The latest system includes the glow of light, even from a normal bulb, on a liquid crystal film trapped between two glass panels. When the light hits the molecules of photosensitive colors on glass panels, they shift their orientation, which triggers molecules in the liquid crystal to start twisting.

Intermolecular forces between the molecules of liquid crystals similar to bars mean that they usually all point in the same direction. If some begin to twist, it triggers the domino effect: the molecules are diverted to a complex interaction that moves through a pattern like a Mexican wave.

From this soup molecules derive stable distorted formations that behave like particles. These particles are interpreted by each other to create observed waves. “We are surprised and excited when we have seen that this time crystalline order can be easily observed in soft substances systems,” says Ivan Smalyukh, a physicist at the University of Colorado Boulder, who has conducted a job.

To observe the molecular dance in detail, the authors looked at the time crystal system using a kind of microscope that conveys only polarized light. The amount of light that passes depends on the alignment of the molecule, revealing the time crystal cracks as a series of dark and bright stripes.