Time crystals just got a little easier to make

popsci.com ^ | FEB 28, 2022 4:16 PM | RAHUL RAO

[BenLurkin]

To make a space crystal, you need the immense pressures of the Earth’s surface bearing down on minerals and magma. But to make a time crystal, you need esoteric equations and ridiculously precise lasers.

At least, that’s how physicists shaped the first self-standing time crystal in a lab last year. Now, they’ve turned into an even more tangible object by creating a time crystal from common elements that can withstand room temperature.

If you’re wondering what a time crystal is (outside of pulp science fiction), most physicists also had the same question until pretty recently. It’s a form of matter that wasn’t proposed until 2012, and wasn’t even seen in rudimentary stages until 2016.

To wrap your head around this wonky chapter of quantum mechanics, think of a crystalized structure like a piece of salt or a diamond. The atoms deep within those objects are arranged in repeating, predictable patterns in space. For instance, if you take an ice cube from your freezer and zoom into the tiniest scales, you’ll see the hydrogen and oxygen atoms of the water molecules forming a mosaic of tiny hexagons. (This is why snowflakes tend to be hexagonal.)

As a result, physicists also call these formations “space crystals.” But just as the three axes of space form different dimensions, time also makes a dimension. Physicists began to wonder if they could find a crystal—or something like it—whose atoms formed repeating patterns in time.

[shotgun]

[old-ager]

... can usually exist only at ...