Scientists Created Room-Temperature Time Crystals. From Here, the Possibilities are Endless.
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Scientists recently spotted inflated rubidium atoms at room temperature behaving as a time crystal.
Usually, this novel matter requires near absolute zero temperatures and elaborate equipment.
A warmer time crystal could last longer and be more durable for further experimentation.
Scientists from China have recently made an elusive time crystal that works in a room temperature environment instead of an ultracold deep freeze. Besides saving the energy of ultracooling, the much warmer system results in the loss of far fewer atoms, which could lead to a study of time crystals lasting much longer than before. A more stable time crystal may lend itself to better quantum computers and more.
The group of physicists behind this work, primarily from Beijing’s Tsinghua University, published their research in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Physics. In their experiments, they used the unusual Rydberg atom which a number of excited states can be used to control atoms while keeping them further apart and less interactive with each other in basic ways. That clears the deck for higher level manipulation by scientists and, indeed, the surrounding atoms. What results is an example of a many-body (multiple atoms) system that may be useful in quantum computers and more.
Time crystals are only 12 years old as a concept, and since they require such special preparation, they may not exist in nature anywhere in the universe. This example of a many-body state happens when multiple atoms are stimulated by a laser until they bond together and start to act in a synchronized way. As a group, the atoms have reached their lowest energy state and continue to move in rhythm in a cycle. They have broken the symmetry, or organization, of their higher energy states and settled into an asymmetrical lower state in terms of time. They can, theoretically, keep moving forever.
Unfortunately, the “ultracold regime” (as the authors call it) leads to a loss of the time crystal’s atoms over time. For many quantum states, atoms must be cooled to near absolute zero. To do that, scientists build setups involving optical tweezers—special lasers that hold atoms in a specific tiny area—and use different laser lights or magnets to cool the atoms by slowing their motion until they almost stop. But at each step, the photons from the lasers can end up knocking atoms out of the setup or the desired state.
For researchers in quantum fields, so-called “room-temperature” solutions far above absolute zero are the holy grail. In this case, the secret is the scientists’ Rydberg atoms. These are rubidium atoms that are excited so that their electrons float as far away as possible while still staying bound to the nucleus. Clouds of these atoms are created by holding the rubidium in a room-temperature gas cell and then continuously stimulating them into the Rydberg state. This reaction is more stable, in fact, at room temperature than in an ultracold time crystal setup.
In their experimental setup, the scientists observed that the Rydberg atoms developed their own rhythmic motion, which is the time crystal’s signature move. They tuned the setup to make sure it was the Rydberg excitement causing the time crystal behavior, and they also explored the idea that exciting atoms into different types of Rydberg states could lead to different forms of time crystal motion. They hope this will lead to further study, and that longer-lasting time crystal states could open more doors in quantum research.
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