Scientists observe continuous time crystal for the first time. (Artists principle.).
Researchers have actually prospered for the very first time in recognizing a time crystal that spontaneously breaks constant time translation symmetry. The scientists, from the Institute of Laser Physics at the University of Hamburg, reported their observation in a study released on June 9, 2022, in the journal Science.
The idea of a time crystal goes back to Nobel laureate Franck Wilczek, who first proposed the phenomenon. Similar to water spontaneously turning into ice around the freezing point, thereby breaking the translation symmetry of the system, the time translation proportion in a dynamical many-body system spontaneously breaks when a time crystal is formed.
In the last few years, scientists have actually currently observed discrete or Floquet time crystals in regularly driven open and closed quantum systems. “In all previous experiments, however, the continuous-time translation proportion is broken by a time-periodic drive,” states Dr. Hans Keßler from Prof. Andreas Hemmerichs group at the Cluster of Excellence “CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter.” “The challenge for us was to recognize a system that spontaneously breaks the continuous time translation proportion.”.
The image reveals cold atoms (in yellow) in an optical resonator on their way to form a time crystal. Credit: AG Hemmerich.
Utilizing a Bose-Einstein condensate inside an optical high-finesse cavity.
In their experiment, the scientists utilized a Bose-Einstein condensate inside an optical high-finesse cavity. Utilizing a time-independent pump, they observed a limit cycle stage which is identified by emerging routine oscillations of the intracavity photon number accompanied by the atomic density biking through repeating patterns.
They found that the time phase of the oscillations takes random values between 0 and 2π, as expected for spontaneously broken continuous proportion. By determining the stability area in the appropriate parameter area and showing the determination of the limit cycle oscillations even in the existence of strong temporal perturbations, the experimenters showed the toughness of the vibrant stage.
Reference: “Observation of a continuous time crystal” by Phatthamon Kongkhambut, Jim Skulte, Ludwig Mathey, Jayson G. Cosme, Andreas Hemmerich and Hans Keßler, 9 June 2022, Science.DOI: 10.1126/ science.abo3382.
In recent years, researchers have currently observed discrete or Floquet time crystals in occasionally driven closed and open quantum systems. “The difficulty for us was to realize a system that spontaneously breaks the constant time translation proportion.”.
