What's a Time Crystal? And Why Does Everyone Think It's for a Time Machine?

AWE, A TIME CRYSTAL

The universe shares with us many dimensions, but, primarily, we interact with four of them daily. 

The first three are defined by width, depth, and height. That’s how we can size up a tree or anything. Also, the three primary states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas—make up the 3-D world. 

Yet, there’s a fourth dimension: time. It’s measured by past, present, and future. It’s linear, meaning, as far as we know, we can’t travel into the past. 

But, oh, yes, it gets stranger. 

When our team saw the headline for “time crystals,” we thought it was a time machine’s centerpiece. Or even a new device to help a watch run indefinitely. But, sadly and fortunately, it was neither of those things.

So what's a Time Crystal?

Humans are pretty skilled at building things in the 3-D world. That’s why you might be reading this in your living room, a coffee shop, or even a bakery (I opt for the blueberry scone). But, can we “build” something within time—that sneaky 4th dimension? 

Google did. Their quantum computer Sycamore built a “time crystal” that hangs out in all four dimensions, is stable and takes in no energy.

That’s unheard of since crystals are a set of molecules that repeat—like quartz and diamonds—and it takes a considerable amount of energy to form, and then they absorb that heat to stay in their stable state and never change. 

On the other hand, in a time crystal, the atoms start in one state and then flip into another, like a domino—and then back again, like a boomerang. So effectively, a “time crystal” is a new state of matter that is always in motion, forever, and doesn’t absorb any energy. 

It’d be the same as a car engine turning into a compressor and then a conductor, within a blink of an eye, and never run out of electricity or gas—sort of like the improbability drive from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

But why create the novel time crystal in the first place? 

Physicists, Google, and the world of science wanted to make quantum computing better. So, Bravo! We can’t wait to see the future applications for the novel time crystal!