Time Crystals Are Here, So What Does That Mean?
Physicists have created a phase of matter that breaks traditionally held laws of physics regarding linear time.
We’re all familiar, and many of us enamored, with crystals and their beautiful, repeating patterns. The elegance of nature and its use of mathematics to create aesthetically pleasing and often useful forms of matter is inherent in crystalline structures. Crystals, as we know them, occupy 3-dimensional space in a rigid, periodic way. But what if there was a crystal that occupied a 4th dimension… time.
Time crystals, though once a seemingly flawed theoretical concept, have now been physically proven to exist. Their existence is yet another product of the study of quantum physics – mind-blowing discoveries in a field that is incredibly hard to comprehend, but whose applications are revolutionary. So, what exactly is a time crystal and what can it do for us?
Breaking Symmetry
The concept of time crystals was theorized by a physicist named Frank Wilczek. Crystals as we know them occupy space periodically in three dimensions. Wilczek believed that in the quantum world the periodicity of crystals could be extended into a 4th dimension, time. For time crystals to be a thing, Wilczek predicted that they would have to spontaneously break what is called, time-translation symmetry.
Time is thought of as being symmetrical in that probability of an occurrence or the laws of physics in general are the same throughout time, essentially time moves through a common interval. Regular crystals break spatial symmetry spontaneously in their existence by repeating physical patterns in space. So, can time crystals break the symmetry of time we perceive it? Apparently, the answer is yes, but how?
How Does a Time Crystal Work?
The term ‘prefer’ often comes up when time crystals are described. 3-dimensional crystals prefer certain areas in space, breaking what’s called spatial translational symmetry. So, time crystals prefer certain areas in space in the same way, but they also prefer certain intervals in time.
Time crystals never reach thermal equilibrium, it’s like something that’s being heated and cooled at the same time. They’re a state of matter that could lead to a whole non-equilibrium phase realm of matter that is new and profound to scientists. When scientists induce this state to create a time crystal, they use lasers and magnets to create a state of non-equilibrium, which basically causes atomic particles to spin in perpetual motion.
Once this state is induced, the particles don’t act as one would expect them to, given our concept of time. In one experiment, given a certain amount of energy, the atoms that were put into non-equilibrium responded with half the amount of energy than was being put into them. One analogy to explain this was that it was like hitting piano keys twice a second and only having notes come out once per second. Or another way of thinking of it is if your jumping rope and for every two times your hand spins, the rope only spins once, and it can’t be forced to move otherwise.
Quantum Leaps
While Wilzcek theorized time crystals, a physicist from UC Berkley, named Norman Yao, formulated a plan for actually creating them. But it was two teams of physicists from Harvard and the University of Maryland that brought time crystals into fruition. The teams physically proved the crystals’ existence using two different methods. The team in Maryland levitated ytterbium ions with a magnetic field and then shot lasers at its atomic particles, causing them to spin. The Harvard team used the center of a diamond as their medium and microwaves as their stimulant to make particles spin and induce non-equilibrium.
So, what is the practical application of a time crystal you might ask? While distorting time to travel back thousands of years to see if the Annunaki really ruled over ancient civilizations sounds like the obvious choice, it’s not that simple. Nor is a more practical function like a perpetual energy generator. But quantum physics has never been simple. Physicists still don’t what the practical functions of time crystals are except for their go-to answer – they’ll be great for memory purposes in quantum computers. Hopefully those quantum computers turn out to either be time machines.
About the Author
The Mystery of Torsion Fields
Russian scientist Nikolai Kozyrev was considered a prodigy. In 1925, at age 17, he published his first scientific paper, which focused on astrophysics and the atmosphere of the sun and other stars. It was met with great acclaim by other scientists.
At age 20, he graduated from the University of Leningrad with degrees in physics and mathematics. By age 28, he was a college professor and distinguished astronomer. To the science community at large, this promising young physicist disappeared for the next 11 years.
Nikolai Kozyrev: Russian Concentration Camps
While Korzyrev was enjoying a successful career as a professor and researcher, Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, was feeling threatened by scientists whom he perceived were independent thinkers. He was concerned they would see through his propaganda program. To prevent this, in 1936, he arrested them and sent them to concentration camps. Nikolai Kozyrev was among those imprisoned. There wasn’t much for him to do during the long 11 years he spent in the camps except to observe, meditate, and think.
During his imprisonment, Kozyrev was enthralled watching bacteria grow and noticed it grew in a perfect spiral. This led him to conclude that all life-forms likely draw off of an unseen spiraling source of energy. This energy is as important to maintenance and growth of life as are “eating, drinking, breathing, and photosynthesis.”
Kozyrev also concluded that this spiraling energy and growth is how time works, with the Earth orbiting in space by way of a “complex spiraling pattern.”
As the Earth rotates on its axis as it orbits the sun, it releases energy, or torsion waves, that propel it through space. The torsion waves travel at speeds faster than the speed of light. These torsion fields are actually “waves of time” which also cause ripples in gravity. Indeed, some scientists now believe that “electromagnetism, gravity and torsion waves are all members of the same family; they are just different forms of ether vibrations.”
