Time Crystals

Scientists unveil new form of matter: time crystals. They repeatedly tweaked a group of ions to create first example of a non-equilibrium material, describes exactly how to make and measure the properties of such a crystal, and even predicts what the various phases surrounding the time crystal should be. post

This phase diagram shows how changing the experimental parameters can 'melt' a time crystal into a normal insulator or heat up a time crystal to a high temperature thermal state.

Time crystals were first proposed in 2012 by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, and last year theoretical physicists at Princeton University and UC Santa Barbara's Station Q independently proved that such a crystal could be made. According to Yao, the UC Berkeley group was "the bridge between the theoretical idea and the experimental implementation."

From the perspective of quantum mechanics, electrons can form crystals that do not match the underlying spatial translation symmetry of the orderly, three-dimensional array of atoms, Yao said. This breaks the symmetry of the material and leads to unique and stable properties we define as a crystal.

See Quantum Physics for more collective behavior.