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posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the head-explodes dept.

Are time crystals just a mathematical curiosity, or could they actually physically exist? Physicists have been debating this question since 2012, when Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek first proposed the idea of time crystals. He argued that these hypothetical objects can exhibit periodic motion, such as moving in a circular orbit, in their state of lowest energy, or their "ground state." Theoretically, objects in their ground states don't have enough energy to move at all.

In the years since, other physicists have proposed various arguments for why the physical existence of time crystals is impossible—and most physicists do seem to think that time crystals are physically impossible because of their odd properties. Even though time crystals couldn't be used to generate useful energy (since disturbing them makes them stop moving), and don't violate the second law of thermodynamics, they do violate a fundamental symmetry of the laws of physics.

However, now in a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, physicists from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Microsoft Station Q (a Microsoft research lab located on the UCSB campus) have demonstrated that it may be possible for time crystals to physically exist.
...
According to the physicists, it should be possible to perform an experiment to observe time-translation symmetry breaking by using a large system of trapped atoms, trapped ions, or superconducting qubits to fabricate a time crystal, and then measure how these systems evolve over time. The scientists predict that the systems will exhibit the periodic, oscillating motion that is characteristic of time crystals and indicative of spontaneously broken time-translation symmetry.


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  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:40PM (#401467)

    https://lgdb.org/game/chaosesque-anthology [lgdb.org]

            Has reached release 93. Over 100 weapons, city generation, buildable buildings (like RTS) and furnishings, spell casting, medeval weaps, futuristic weaps, modern weaps, foliage system, nukes, etc etc. Thoughts?

    Took 10 time.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   -1  
       Offtopic=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Offtopic' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   -1  
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:52PM (#401471)

    Beyond the time cube, which is shaped like a sodium chorlide crystal, and worthy of 4 24 hour days per side (except the tops and bottom since the cube isn't sideways like that) I have to argue with the comment "The scientists predict that the systems will exhibit the periodic, oscillating motion that is characteristic of time crystals and indicative of spontaneously broken time-translation symmetry."

    If they do not know how it will look, how can they claim to know what the exhibited characteristics will be to know to look for them?

    They'll look for what they hope to find (the prediction) but can't state that something *is* a characteristic if they have yet to encounter one to measure such characteristics from.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jdavidb on Tuesday September 13 2016, @09:10PM

      by jdavidb (5690) on Tuesday September 13 2016, @09:10PM (#401476) Homepage Journal
      Oh, man, I hate that I was beaten to the punch with a Time Cube reference here.
      --
      ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by edIII on Wednesday September 14 2016, @02:56AM

        by edIII (791) on Wednesday September 14 2016, @02:56AM (#401608)

        If you merge Time Cube and Flat Earth together, I think it actually makes more sense than either one alone.

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Wednesday September 14 2016, @03:36PM

          by jdavidb (5690) on Wednesday September 14 2016, @03:36PM (#401839) Homepage Journal
          I think you're right!
          --
          ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 14 2016, @03:33PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 14 2016, @03:33PM (#401835)

        I hope that site never goes down. It should, now that I think about it--be hosted on all four corners of the globe, as a sort of poetic validation for the time cube itself.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 14 2016, @03:49PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 14 2016, @03:49PM (#401850)


          $ dig timecube.com

          ; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4 <<>> timecube.com
          ;; global options: +cmd
          ;; Got answer:
          ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 20799
          ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

          Noooooooooooooo!

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @09:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @09:17PM (#401480)

      If they do not know how it will look, how can they claim to know what the exhibited characteristics will be to know to look for them?

      You go where the physics takes you. For instance, back in the day you could take the Standard Model and say "the physics of this model says there should be a particle here with such-and-such properties". If you find it, it tells you something, and if you don't, well, that tells you something too. But you're starting with a physical model and not just making shit up.