https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602541/physicists-create-worlds-first-time-crystal/amp/
Physicists create worlds first time crystal
Time crystals were first predicted in 2012. Now researchers have created time crystals for the first time and say they could one day be used as quantum memories.
Crystals are extraordinary objects, not least because of their symmetry. Crystals form repeating patterns that are the same in some directions but not all directions. Thats something of a surprise given that the laws of physics, which govern their formation, are the same in all directions.
That the laws of physics are spatially symmetrical but crystals are not is a phenomenon known as symmetry breaking. It comes about not by adding energy to a system, but by taking it away. Indeed, crystals are a manifestation of systems in their lowest energy states.
But the laws of physics are not only symmetrical in space but also in time. And that raises the interesting question of whether it is possible to break temporal symmetry in the same way. In other words, is it possible to create time crystals?
Today, we get an answer thanks to the work of Chris Monroe at the University of Maryland in College Park and a few pals, who have created a time crystal in their laboratory for the first time.
*chuckles* you mean the chaos emeralds?