In 2012, theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek proposed a controversial concept to describe a new state of matter that defied the laws of physics.
"Time crystals," Wilczek called them — he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004.
In just nine years, time crystals have gone from a physical impossibility to a practical reality. And it's surprising that such an abrupt shift happened in so little time.
For a long time, it was believed that time crystals were impossible because they're made of atoms in endless motion. A discovery has shown that not only can time crystals be created, but they also have the potential to become useful devices, for example in the field of quantum computing.
To help you understand Wilczek's whole theory, FullOffice Learning explains what a time crystal is, starting with what a crystal is from a physicochemical point of view: a crystal is a structure of matter whose atoms are arranged in a homogeneous, orderly way, forming a pattern that repeats periodically throughout space. They're very common in nature; in fact, gemstones, sugar, and salt are crystals, among many other objects that occur completely naturally.
Frank Wilczek came up with the idea that a different kind of crystal could exist, one whose atomic structure, instead of repeating in space, would repeat periodically over time. Building a time crystal required finding a way to spontaneously break time symmetry, and at the time this goal seemed impossible.
Despite the scientific community's initial skepticism, some researchers thought about what Wilczek was proposing and realized that, under certain highly unlikely but possible conditions, some objects could theoretically exhibit the behavior of a time crystal. They would need to be able to change their structure with a certain periodicity and return to their initial configuration at regular intervals.
A research group used Google's quantum computer to recreate a time crystal that manages to sidestep the second law of thermodynamics. According to these researchers, their approach describes an object capable of changing phase at regular intervals, thereby breaking time symmetry without expending the slightest amount of energy in the process. In theory, this is a true, full-fledged time crystal.
But what is a time crystal good for? Researchers working on the design of time crystals hope to use them to measure time and distance with extreme precision. If successful, they could likely be used to fine-tune more precise GPS systems, more advanced telecommunications equipment, or more robust cryptography systems, among other applications.
There's even the possibility that time crystals could help us detect gravitational waves more precisely, and also help us better understand what happens inside black holes and what the properties are of the space-time continuum that permeates the entire universe. We can't take any of this for granted just yet, and researchers honestly admit as much, but there's no doubt this is a very promising area of research that may hold some big surprises for us in the medium term.