The researchers cooled the superfluid helium-3 to near absolute zero (minus 273.15 ° C) inside this rotating refrigerator, where two temporary crystals were created and brought into contact. Credit: © Aalto University / Mikko Raskinen
Scientists have created the first two-body “crystal of time” system in an experiment that appears to bend the laws of physics.
It comes after the same team recently witnessed the first interaction of the new phase of the matter.
For a long time it was believed that the crystals of time were impossible because they are made of atoms in endless motion. The discovery, published in Communications of naturedemonstrates that not only can time crystals be created, but they have the potential to become useful devices.
Time crystals are different from a standard crystal, such as metals or rocks, which is made up of atoms arranged in a pattern that is regularly repeated in space.
First theorized in 2012 by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek and identified in 2016, the crystals of time have the strange property of being constant and repeating in motion over time even though there is no external input. Its atoms are constantly oscillating, rotating, or moving first in one direction and then in the other.
Dr. Samuli Autti of EPSRC, lead author of the Department of Physics at the University of Lancaster, explained: “Everyone knows that perpetual motion machines are impossible. However, in quantum physics, perpetual motion is always good. we have our eyes closed. crack we can make time crystals “.
“It turns out that putting two of them together works really well, although time crystals shouldn’t exist in the first place. And we know they also exist at room temperature.”
A “two-tier system” is a basic building block of a quantum computer. Time crystals could be used to build quantum devices that operate at room temperature.
An international team of researchers from Lancaster University, Royal Holloway in London, Landau Institute and Aalto University in Helsinki observed time crystals using Heli-3, which is a rare isotope of helium with a neutron that was missing. The experiment was conducted at Aalto University.
They cooled superfluid helium-3 to one-tenth of a degree from absolute zero (0.0001 K or -273.15 C). The researchers created two temporary crystals inside the superfluid and brought them into contact. Scientists then observed how the two time crystals interacted as described by quantum physics.
First observation of the interaction of “time crystals” More information: Nonlinear dynamics of two levels of quantum time crystals, Communications of nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038 / s41467-022-30783-w Provided by Lancaster University
Quote: The “impossible” time crystals but obey quantum physics (2022, June 2) retrieved June 2, 2022 from
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