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posted by janrinok on Monday July 06 2015, @06:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the is-it-made-of-kyber? dept.

From New Scientist

Ordinary crystals are three-dimensional objects whose atoms are arranged in regular, repeating patterns – just like table salt. They adopt this structure because it uses the lowest amount of energy possible to maintain.

Earlier this year, Frank Wilczek, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, speculated that a similar structure might repeat regularly in the fourth dimension – time.

Wilczek has also theorised that a working time crystal could be made into a computer, with different rotational states standing in for the 0s and 1s of a conventional computer.

The article includes a description (by Tongcang Li from the University of California, and others) of how such a time crystal could be built. Though it will be tricky because building the crystal will need temperatures close to absolute zero.

While Wilczek points out that the heat-death of the universe is, in principle, "very user friendly" for this kind of experiment because it would be cold and dark, there are other issues to consider.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2015, @11:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2015, @11:05PM (#205884)

    Very confused? That's timecube for ya.

    The website does exist, though - I just loaded it to check.

  • (Score: 1) by FrogBlast on Monday July 06 2015, @11:45PM

    by FrogBlast (21) on Monday July 06 2015, @11:45PM (#205898)

    I just had it load, then get replaced half a second later with a sketchy search page. I'm as enamored of 4 Corner Days as the next man, but something is definitely amiss over there.

    • (Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @01:16PM

      by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Tuesday July 07 2015, @01:16PM (#206097)

      > I'm as enamored of 4 Corner Days as the next man, but something is definitely amiss over there.

      More than usual, anyway.