Oct 18, 2025 11:35 PM
(This post was last modified: Oct 19, 2025 01:31 AM by C C.)
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1101937
INTRO: A glittering hunk of crystal gets its iridescence from a highly regular atomic structure. Frank Wilczek, the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics, proposed quantum systems –– like groups of particles –– could construct themselves in the same way, but in time instead of space. He dubbed such systems time crystals, defining them by their lowest possible energy state, which perpetually repeats movements without external energy input. Time crystals were experimentally proved to exist in 2016.
Now researchers at Aalto University’s Department of Applied Physics have, for the first time, connected a time crystal to another system external from itself. The study, first-authored by Academy Research Fellow Jere Mäkinen, describes how the team turned a time crystal into an optomechanical system that could be used to develop things like extremely accurate sensors or memory systems for quantum computers, significantly boosting their power.
The study was published on October 16, 2025, in Nature Communications.
‘Perpetual motion is possible in the quantum realm so long as it is not disturbed by external energy input, such as by observing it. That is why a time crystal had never before been connected to any external system,’ Mäkinen says. ‘But we did just that and showed, also for the first time, that you can adjust the crystal’s properties using this method.’ (MORE - details, no ads)
INTRO: A glittering hunk of crystal gets its iridescence from a highly regular atomic structure. Frank Wilczek, the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics, proposed quantum systems –– like groups of particles –– could construct themselves in the same way, but in time instead of space. He dubbed such systems time crystals, defining them by their lowest possible energy state, which perpetually repeats movements without external energy input. Time crystals were experimentally proved to exist in 2016.
Now researchers at Aalto University’s Department of Applied Physics have, for the first time, connected a time crystal to another system external from itself. The study, first-authored by Academy Research Fellow Jere Mäkinen, describes how the team turned a time crystal into an optomechanical system that could be used to develop things like extremely accurate sensors or memory systems for quantum computers, significantly boosting their power.
The study was published on October 16, 2025, in Nature Communications.
‘Perpetual motion is possible in the quantum realm so long as it is not disturbed by external energy input, such as by observing it. That is why a time crystal had never before been connected to any external system,’ Mäkinen says. ‘But we did just that and showed, also for the first time, that you can adjust the crystal’s properties using this method.’ (MORE - details, no ads)