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Quantum physics

Time crystals

Nature volume 493, pages 166–167 (2013)Cite this article

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Physicists have come up with the mind-boggling concept of a time crystal. This intriguing proposal, which is based on the notion of broken time-translation symmetry, might open up a whole new field of research.

Philosophers, physicists and writers have long pondered the perpetual periodicities in time that make up our lives — from a heartbeat to the motions of the planets. Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci both considered perpetual motion, concluding that it is the stuff of alchemy. Curiously, we now know that perpetual motion is possible, but perpetual oscillation, that's another thing. There is a new debate afoot involving the connection between time and 'broken symmetry'. A snowflake epitomizes this concept, because as it crystallizes, it lowers its energy by breaking the homogeneity and isotropy of water. Such 'spontaneously broken symmetry' permeates the world we live in: for example, the orientation of the liquid crystals in a television screen and the tiny range of forces between subatomic particles both rely on broken symmetry. These cases of broken symmetry leave the homogeneity of time unchallenged, but the world we live in is also full of clocks — of periodicities and oscillations that break time-translation symmetry.

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Figure 1: Periodicities in space and time.

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  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Piers Coleman is in the Center for Materials Theory, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8019, USA.,

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  1. Piers Coleman
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Correspondence to Piers Coleman.

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Coleman, P. Time crystals. Nature 493, 166–167 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/493166a

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