Google Researchers Create ‘Time Crystal’ Inside Quantum Computer

People – jokingly – say that Google will one day rule the world. Well, that day may not be that far away now, as its team continues to innovate and leave the scientific community in awe.

A team of researchers from Google have managed to create the first ‘time crystal‘ inside a quantum computer. For those who don’t know, a time crystal is a unique form of matter that – theoretically – could change between two states without applying energy on them.

Time Crystal: Perfect Entropy

‘Normal’ crystals, such as salt, snowflakes, or even diamonds; are formed by stable atom patterns that are the same in all three dimensions. Time crystals, on the other hand, atoms continue to move following a pattern in time rather than in space.

By following a time pattern, the atoms of time crystals are never arranged in a fundamental state. In that state, atoms can’t move on their own, thus needing an appliance of energy by an external factor.

That’s why ‘regular’ crystals aren’t mobile. They’re in perfect balance within their fundamental state. With time crystals, their structure is constantly changing. Moreover, that constant oscillation doesn’t even require external energy.

Google’s Milestone

Now, a team featuring researchers from Google, MIT, and Stanford University used Google’s quantum computer Sycamore to create a time crystal.

“In the Google experiment, they do a set of operations on this chain of spins, then they do exactly the same thing again, and again. They do the same thing at the hundredth step that they do at the millionth step, if they go that far,” Physic Kurt von Keyserlingk explained ZDNet.

“So they subject the system to a set of conditions that have symmetry, and yet the system responds in a manner that breaks that symmetry. It’s the same every two periods instead of every period. That’s what makes it literally a time crystal,” he added.

This experiment further confirms Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek’s theory that cited that time crystals were a true possibility. Now, they’ll continue to dig deeper into this matter and unravel more mysteries of physics.