BIG SCIENCE: Scientists Discover New State of Matter Called ‘Time Crystals’

Two different teams of scientists reported the discovery in the journal Nature on Wednesday. They are the first to directly create and observe time crystals, the long-theorized quantum systems that spin at their own pace independent of their environment, seemingly breaking the rules of normal timekeeping.

One team, led by the University of Maryland, used 10 levitating charged atoms, or ions, to create time crystals with the help of a complicated, colorful network of lasers and mirrors. Another team, led by Harvard University, used lasers, microwaves and black diamonds, which have special impurities the researchers were able to exploit to build the time crystals.

Both experiments arrived at very similar results despite using different approaches.

“That’s really encouraging,” said Frank Wilczek, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who wasn’t involved in either study and writes a column for The Wall Street Journal. It shows that engineering time crystals in the lab might not be as difficult as once thought, he added.

It’s yet unknown whether time crystals exist outside of the lab, scientists said.

In the long term, time-crystal enthusiasts say the underlying physics—and the technology used to probe such quantum systems—could have applications in quantum computing, plus in building more sensitive quantum sensors.

Patrick Bruno, a theoretical physicist at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility who wasn’t involved in the studies, is more skeptical, saying those claims are “highly speculative” and “vague.”

This layman would have to add “nearly incomprehensible.”