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Time Crystals: The Reality, The Hype, And The Hope
They’re here, they’re real, but what do they mean for humanity?
Picture this: some guy who graduated from a public high school in Queens, who was the son of a repairman and grandson of European immigrants, comes up to you and says it’s possible to manufacture something called a “time crystal,” a new kind of crystal that without any input of energy from external sources, its component subatomic particles would shift between two states forever, potentially even after the heat death of the universe. What are you going to say to him? And would you be able to say it without rude profanity and a certain one-fingered gesture?
Well, what if that guy was also a Nobel Laureate who was also Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Founding Director of T. D. Lee Institute and Chief Scientist at the Wilczek Quantum Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Distinguished Professor at Arizona State University and full Professor at Stockholm University? Instead of yelling at him, you just might sit up and pay attention, right?
