Time crystals really don't like to play by the rules.
That could be a good thing for quantum computing.
BY CAROLINE DELBERT
Time crystals violate some laws of physics—notably, Isaac Newton's first law of motion—in much the same way that many quantum phenomena do.
Quantum computers are built in supercooled chambers called cryostats.
Scientists from around the world claim to have harnessed a time crystal inside a quantum computer. If true, their discovery—as outlined in a July 28 pre-print research paper—could change the world virtually overnight with a limitless, rule-breaking source of energy that would bring quantum computers into the now.
As The Next Web astutely points out, this could be "the most important scientific breakthrough in our lifetimes." But to understand why, let's first examine the complicated connection between time crystals and quantum computing.
What Is a Time Crystal?
A time crystal is a special phase of matter that changes constantly, but doesn't ever appear to use any energy. This, scientists say, means it violates Isaac Newton's first law of motion, which deals with inertia—the resistance an object has to a change while in motion. A rolling marble doesn't stop unless other forces act upon it, for instance. But from experience, you know that it will eventually stop due to forces like friction. If your marble were a time crystal, though, it would literally never stop.
🤯KEEP NERDING OUT
Scientists Catch Time Crystals Interacting
Time crystals, therefore, act more like superconducting materials (such as mercury or lead). Superconductivity is a quantum phenomenon in nature wherein certain materials conduct direct current electricity without any energy loss if they are cooled below a certain temperature. They also expel magnetic fields, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Once again, that means time crystals break the rules; this time, it's the second law of thermodynamics, which states that disorder, or entropy, will always increase. Put another way: the universe is always moving toward change. But time crystals are big-time rule-breakers that don't like change, meaning their disorder remains stable over time. In fact, that makes time crystals a wholly new phase of matter.
Why does that matter? It basically means that time crystals can oscillate between forms without ever using any energy. In a Schrödinger's Cat scenario, for instance, the radioactive atoms would decay and not decay, kill the cat and not kill the cat, back and forth one million times over without using any energy. This really could go on forever (apologies to the cat), hence the name "time crystal."
Time Crystals, Meet Quantum Computing
There's a reason we bring up Schrödinger's Cat: time crystals could be a game-changer for quantum computers, which physicists often seen as the natural next step in terms of computing power—they work at the most essential molecular and even particulate level, after all. They also capitalize on ideas like the passage of electrons around solid materials (literally what electricity is!), and represent a huge challenge for computer scientists to puzzle over. Think of quantum computing like the "going to Mars" of computing.
And on a more practical level, there are ways in which quantum computers offer special access to ideas that traditional electronic computers simply cannot manage. This is also where time crystals come into play, if peer review shows that Google's research is valid.
This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Electronic computers, like the one you may be reading this story on, use logical gates that switch on and off, so everything in your computer relies on just two states: on and off, light and dark, 1s and 0s, the whole binary system. Introducing qubits (quantum bits, which are often a single atom of an element with a carefully controlled electron) muddies the waters, both by adding more possible states than just on and off, and by adding an entire basis of uncertainty that complicates the picture.
Why would scientists want a complicated, less predictable form of computing? Well, a lot of questions scientists must ask themselves involve more than two binary outcomes. This, in turn, translates into mathematical computing challenges for traditional computers.
Think about choosing a number between 1 and 100. A traditional computer would register that value in a binary format, of course, but also would register the number itself as a binary that's on or off. There are 99 other binaries representing the other numbers you didn't choose. It's a lot of variables to keep track of for something quite simple.
Now imagine the number between 1 and 100 is actually the outcome of something like animal breeding, or a plan for a warp drive. In reality, there are thousands, millions, or even more possibilities. Instead of trying to "force" a binary-based computer to do the work in an awkward way, a quantum computer might help scientists more naturally represent what happens.
This is where time crystals also offer even more promise than quantum qubit computing alone. Time crystals are stable, but pulsate at interesting intervals, meaning they might help scientists study things like repeating patterns or random numbers—with similar implications in the natural sciences and beyond.
How Did Scientists Create a Time Crystal?
For this research—which, notably, has not yet been peer-reviewed for publication in an academic journal—a group of over 100 scientists from around the world collaborated with Google Quantum AI, a joint initiative between Google, NASA, and the nonprofit Universities Space Research Association. Its goal is to expedite research on quantum computing and computer science.
In the paper, the scientists describe building a special microscopic rig where a time crystal is surrounded by superconducting qubits—special particles that are the bread and butter of quantum computing.
The quantum computer sits inside a cryostat, which is a temperature-controlled supercooling chamber that keeps all the materials at the right, extremely low temperature for advanced states like superconducting or time crystals (nuclear fusion also relies on cryostats as a way to keep equipment at the right temperature for containing fusion's extraordinary heat).
This would be, Quanta Magazine reports, the first fully successful demonstration of a time crystal. That's a pretty big deal, considering how difficult quantum computers are to build and maintain. In large part, that's because qubits are unstable, acting differently when they're under observation than when they're left alone. Time crystals, meanwhile, are stable.
It's not surprising that Google is leading the charge toward powerful quantum computing, themselves named after the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros: a googol. But what will come of one of the world's largest and most omnipresent companies having the most cutting-edge computing technology ever seen? It might take a time crystal-powered quantum computer to make that prediction.
BY CAROLINE DELBERT
AUG 4, 2021
VICTOR DE SCHWANBERG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYGETTY IMAGES
Scientists say they've placed an elusive time crystal inside a quantum computer.
VICTOR DE SCHWANBERG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYGETTY IMAGES
Scientists say they've placed an elusive time crystal inside a quantum computer.
Time crystals violate some laws of physics—notably, Isaac Newton's first law of motion—in much the same way that many quantum phenomena do.
Quantum computers are built in supercooled chambers called cryostats.
Scientists from around the world claim to have harnessed a time crystal inside a quantum computer. If true, their discovery—as outlined in a July 28 pre-print research paper—could change the world virtually overnight with a limitless, rule-breaking source of energy that would bring quantum computers into the now.
As The Next Web astutely points out, this could be "the most important scientific breakthrough in our lifetimes." But to understand why, let's first examine the complicated connection between time crystals and quantum computing.
What Is a Time Crystal?
A time crystal is a special phase of matter that changes constantly, but doesn't ever appear to use any energy. This, scientists say, means it violates Isaac Newton's first law of motion, which deals with inertia—the resistance an object has to a change while in motion. A rolling marble doesn't stop unless other forces act upon it, for instance. But from experience, you know that it will eventually stop due to forces like friction. If your marble were a time crystal, though, it would literally never stop.
🤯KEEP NERDING OUT
Scientists Catch Time Crystals Interacting
Time crystals, therefore, act more like superconducting materials (such as mercury or lead). Superconductivity is a quantum phenomenon in nature wherein certain materials conduct direct current electricity without any energy loss if they are cooled below a certain temperature. They also expel magnetic fields, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Once again, that means time crystals break the rules; this time, it's the second law of thermodynamics, which states that disorder, or entropy, will always increase. Put another way: the universe is always moving toward change. But time crystals are big-time rule-breakers that don't like change, meaning their disorder remains stable over time. In fact, that makes time crystals a wholly new phase of matter.
Why does that matter? It basically means that time crystals can oscillate between forms without ever using any energy. In a Schrödinger's Cat scenario, for instance, the radioactive atoms would decay and not decay, kill the cat and not kill the cat, back and forth one million times over without using any energy. This really could go on forever (apologies to the cat), hence the name "time crystal."
Time Crystals, Meet Quantum Computing
There's a reason we bring up Schrödinger's Cat: time crystals could be a game-changer for quantum computers, which physicists often seen as the natural next step in terms of computing power—they work at the most essential molecular and even particulate level, after all. They also capitalize on ideas like the passage of electrons around solid materials (literally what electricity is!), and represent a huge challenge for computer scientists to puzzle over. Think of quantum computing like the "going to Mars" of computing.
And on a more practical level, there are ways in which quantum computers offer special access to ideas that traditional electronic computers simply cannot manage. This is also where time crystals come into play, if peer review shows that Google's research is valid.
This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Electronic computers, like the one you may be reading this story on, use logical gates that switch on and off, so everything in your computer relies on just two states: on and off, light and dark, 1s and 0s, the whole binary system. Introducing qubits (quantum bits, which are often a single atom of an element with a carefully controlled electron) muddies the waters, both by adding more possible states than just on and off, and by adding an entire basis of uncertainty that complicates the picture.
Why would scientists want a complicated, less predictable form of computing? Well, a lot of questions scientists must ask themselves involve more than two binary outcomes. This, in turn, translates into mathematical computing challenges for traditional computers.
Think about choosing a number between 1 and 100. A traditional computer would register that value in a binary format, of course, but also would register the number itself as a binary that's on or off. There are 99 other binaries representing the other numbers you didn't choose. It's a lot of variables to keep track of for something quite simple.
Now imagine the number between 1 and 100 is actually the outcome of something like animal breeding, or a plan for a warp drive. In reality, there are thousands, millions, or even more possibilities. Instead of trying to "force" a binary-based computer to do the work in an awkward way, a quantum computer might help scientists more naturally represent what happens.
This is where time crystals also offer even more promise than quantum qubit computing alone. Time crystals are stable, but pulsate at interesting intervals, meaning they might help scientists study things like repeating patterns or random numbers—with similar implications in the natural sciences and beyond.
How Did Scientists Create a Time Crystal?
For this research—which, notably, has not yet been peer-reviewed for publication in an academic journal—a group of over 100 scientists from around the world collaborated with Google Quantum AI, a joint initiative between Google, NASA, and the nonprofit Universities Space Research Association. Its goal is to expedite research on quantum computing and computer science.
In the paper, the scientists describe building a special microscopic rig where a time crystal is surrounded by superconducting qubits—special particles that are the bread and butter of quantum computing.
The quantum computer sits inside a cryostat, which is a temperature-controlled supercooling chamber that keeps all the materials at the right, extremely low temperature for advanced states like superconducting or time crystals (nuclear fusion also relies on cryostats as a way to keep equipment at the right temperature for containing fusion's extraordinary heat).
This would be, Quanta Magazine reports, the first fully successful demonstration of a time crystal. That's a pretty big deal, considering how difficult quantum computers are to build and maintain. In large part, that's because qubits are unstable, acting differently when they're under observation than when they're left alone. Time crystals, meanwhile, are stable.
It's not surprising that Google is leading the charge toward powerful quantum computing, themselves named after the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros: a googol. But what will come of one of the world's largest and most omnipresent companies having the most cutting-edge computing technology ever seen? It might take a time crystal-powered quantum computer to make that prediction.
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