If you are still used to the good old 4 fundamental states of matter (Solid, Liquid, Gas and Plasma), you are sooo last year!
While there are a multitude of other non-classical states (glass, liquid crystals, Bose–Einstein condensate,...), time crystals is a new state of matter whose existence has only been proven earlier this year 2017 (experiments at end of 2016 to be exact), 5 years after being speculated by MIT professor Frank Wilczek in 2012.
I was in fact so intrigued finding out about them, that I decided to do an in-depth research and share it with you :)
What are those time crystals?
A Crystal (not time crystal) is basically a solid, containing atoms or molecules that are arranged in a highly ordered and periodic/repeated manner.
Table salt, diamonds, and snow flakes are examples of such crystals.
Microscopic View of Crystallite (Crystal) structure vs Polycristalline (exhibiting mutiple different crystals combined, including most metals) vs Amorphous (anything else without periodic atom arrangement)
Microscopic cubic arrangement of Halite Crystal NaCl: Na+(purple) Cl-(green) (Salt)
While crystals are essentially space crystals, meaning they are well ordered and repeated in space - 3D, time crystals just added the 4th "Time" dimension and hence dubbed Time Crystals
Basically, time crystals are similarly ordered and repeated in space, yet they would additionally switch their configurations in a repeating pattern through time, hence flipping from one configuration to another back and forth.
Breaking time-translation symmetry
Time-translation symmetry is basically a fundamental mathematical hypothesis of modern physics, stating that laws of physics are the same everywhere and across time.
Normal Crystals break symmetry in space, since depending on the location, their atoms might behave differently, but also conservation of momentum does not necessarily apply.
Check out the Umklapp process illustration below whereby to the left this is the normal result, to the right U-process is where the momentum is modified and hence symmetry is broken.
This lead Wilczek back in 2012 to consider breaking time-translation symmetry via the concept of time crystals. With the creation of time crystals, time-translation symmetry is now broken, due to the created oscillations within time crystals and the relevant change of arrangement over time.
This is best explained by Norman Yao, of UC Berkeley, whose blueprint paper in 2016 concerning lab-creating a time crystal paved the way to the successful creation of the first time crystals in late 2016/ early 2017, who illustrates them as close to the example of the act of jumping a rope. Every time your hand spins, you expect the rope to make a full rotation. Yet in the case of time crystals though, while the arm goes around twice, the rope only goes around once.
Do they break the laws of thermodynamics?
While time crystals do not break the laws of thermodynamics per se, due to the fact that throughout the full "activity" of their system there is preservation of energy, yet within the different stages of their oscillations and as the electrons would move irrelevant of the driving force (further details in experiments below) - back to breaking time symmetry, this might be considered as loss of energy. The system does exhibit a zero energy behavior, which leads us to the next notion..
Did we find a perpetual-motion system?
While this was one of the original claims by Wilczek, yet it was later proven that time crystals cannot exist in equilibrium (as proven by Masaki Oshikawa, university of Tokyo) and that essentially any matter cannot exist, at its ground state, in non-equilibrium.
Essentially, time crystals need constant motivation or a driving mechanism such as simulation by laser (more on creating time crystals below). In the absence of such simulation, time crystals would become dormant.
How were time crystals created?
Two different experiments around end of 2016, lead to the creation of time crystals.
The first was led by Christopher Monroe at University of Maryland, who relying on Yao's proposal, trapped 10 ytterbium ions as a chain (see picture below) and alternately applied laser pulses to create a magnetic field, another laser was also used to repetitively cause a partial flip to the spins of the atoms. This caused oscillations in the system, which were actually happening at half the frequency of the laser pulses. Hence the observation of time crystals. They key to maintaining the system was though to maintain the ions out of equilibrium, hence the exact notion of non-equilibrium time crystal.
chain of ytterbium ions utilized for creating the time crystal system
The second later experiment, led by Mikhail Lukin at Harvard, used a diamond crystal loaded with nitrogen vacancy centers, and a microwave for the pulses, similar results as the prior experiment were observed with half frequency oscillations compared to the microwave pulses, with the former lasting above one hundred cycles before the system went dormant. Hence the second generation of the time crystals.
Diamond time crystal system
Hope you found this as intriguing as I did! And thank you for reading through :)
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_matter
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal
- https://www.space.com/38100-the-significance-of-time-crystals.html
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/time-crystals-how-scientists-created-a-new-state-of-matter-a7593131.html#gallery
- https://phys.org/news/2017-04-physicists-crystals-key-quantum-machines.html
- https://phys.org/news/2017-01-physicists-unveil-mattertime-crystals.html
- https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mgkzmx/ok-wtf-is-a-time-crystal
- https://gizmodo.com/scientists-finally-observed-time-crystals-but-what-the-1793061377
- https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-official-time-crystals-are-a-new-crazy-state-of-matter-and-now-we-can-create-them
Photo Credits:
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I found this really interesting and well written. Thanks for the knowledge.
I was never very good at science, but I understand the chemical compounds that make up what you're referencing. So I suppose that's something :) Very cool piece of writing.
Thank you stellz !
This is really interesting "a repeating pattern through time".
In terms of energy, life, humanity patterns, all repeating through time this is quite a huge topic!
I'm thinking if you can change the programming of the time crystal then that would change the pattern and what happens in the future?
I like your perception and "big picture" vision onto combining this with different elements of existence ..
Thank you for that!
I guess with science, only time would tell :)
Thanks! :)
Yes I'm feeling inspired by this and did lots of energy work on repeating patterns through time being created through 'time crystals'. This is huge! So many patterns where those with integrity are in poverty, lack and struggle, time after time. Those out of integrity are connected to greed and earn loads, so massive areas to work on.
I'm so pleased you posted your post and I was guided to seeing it! :)
This makes me think of habits! Sometimes we need a 'laser pulse' to 'agitate us' to change our 'patterns through time'!
Yes indeed! Time crystals are probably what causes and creates habits, so sending out a powerful Pure Intention that the habit is replaced with something positive is like a 'laser pulse' in energy to change the habit / patterns through time! :)
Wow! This is way over my head lol Sounds really interesting, I think I will have to read the post a few times to be able to understand it though, I was never very good at science :)
hehe yea, it took me quite some research to grasp it well myself. Science can be difficult yet equally amazing :D
First thing I thought of was a time loop. But as I re-read it (probably have to re-read it a couple of times), I thought maybe that perhaps the time crystals were in a state of time skips (as the matter disappears and reappears)
Is this description relevant? I really am interested in wrapping my head probably around this concept
Thanks for your comment.
I don't have info whether the matter disappears at the moment and then reappears, I think you are referring to how electrons behave around atoms.
Not even sure if the experiments looked into this aspect, but could be worthy of looking into it.
Hi @mcfarhat!
I'm happy to include this post in the next CTR Crossword Puzzle No.-6. This post will be linked in all related CTR Crossword posts . All participants for this puzzle will land on this post to find their answers to it
Thank you for creating awesome content for our participants!
Sounds good, thank you !
Good luck to your participants :)
Thanks I liked trying to understand this. :-)
Pleasure, thank you Clara for stopping by :)
Could this be properly called "state of matter" or just a interesting phenomenon that happens on certain circumstances
hey riku,
yea it definitely is a state of matter, as it involves crystals (matters) who are in a specific state via induced incentive. Kinda like water moves to vapor/gas with excessive heat, gas is a state of matter
Thanks for reading through :)
Well this did give my mind something to gnaw on for a while, leading to other ideas. While it may be considered a stretch of imagination- I immediately started thinking about a relevance to human behavior, mental states and conditions. Everything in our environment offers an opportunity to learn from it.
yea every door we open could lead to thousands of new thoughts and ideas. Thank you for your insights!
Interesting. You actually gave me some understanding of an odd thing that happens from time to time with my crystals who seem to mysteriously jump(?) somewhere else and show up again later (often in a place that surprises me).
lol
haha glad we got that mystery resolved then !
Indeed! Most excellent. And now I will go over there and have a little chat, especially with the moldavite.
yes fantastic idea ! :D just make sure they're not fake ones
Oh they're so legit. I'm a total moldavite-geek.
I'll have to snap a pic of "my precious" and share it soon. It's one serious teardrop...museumworthy, from what I've heard from every collector who has seen it. ^_^
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not cool bro, you just don't spam your articles in comments
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Welcome to steemit :)
Thanks alot!! :)
Upvoted and following you too!!
Thank you @doodlebear !
Yes that is pretty accurate, just keeping in mind that for time crystals, the system as a whole is always in non-equilibrium state and cannot exist in equilibrium state. Effectively it is also considered a zero-energy system throughout the process, while relying on the external driver as you mentioned to initiate and kick off the oscillations every now and then.
Can be a bit overwhelming to fully comprehend, but you got it :)
I have not much of info about silicon based life forms, really interesting I must added.
Will have a look at that, thank you !