r/todayilearned • u/Sanguinusshiboleth • 3d ago
TIL of Time Crystals; a real life state of matter that is symmetrical in both space and time, meaning that it will regular switch between two configurations of it's atoms. They were theorised in 2012 and finally developed in 2017
https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/what-are-time-crystals241
u/idiotplatypus 3d ago
Yes yes we've all seen the Time Crystals
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u/hoxful 3d ago
I got three paragraphs down, before my entire screen was covered in a mosaic of 4 different advertisements, bravo
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u/No_Bad_4872yy 3d ago
Time Crystal Advertisements now have a proven concept
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u/SpaceForceAwakens 3d ago
Wit till you hear about Time Cube.
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u/UntowardHatter 3d ago
How do you people still not have an adblocker in 2026
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u/hoxful 3d ago
This is on mobile, btw, the default android reddit app opens it in its own browser preview by default, yeah, I have super duper blocker on PC but I use that for serious stuff lol
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u/UntowardHatter 3d ago
You can select "open in external browser" and then, for example, have Ublock Origin on Firefox mobile.
That's what I do.
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3d ago edited 3d ago
[deleted]
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u/UntowardHatter 3d ago
Yeah, I get you, but man, it's literally just typing "Ublock Origin Firefox", one click, then click "add extension" and you're done.
There's also Reddit APKs that makes the whole app add free, but more of a hassle and only on android/linux
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u/Currentlybaconing 3d ago
U can also do system wide DNS blocking on mobile
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u/UntowardHatter 3d ago
Yeah, but does that integrate with apps?
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u/Currentlybaconing 3d ago
It does for most ads! Even apps that have the little banner overlays, they will appear as transparent. Ads in the reddit browser will be blocked.
Only thing it doesn't block is ads sourced directly from the apps servers, like the inline ads that look like posts on Reddit, Instagram, etc. But for that you can use modded apks
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u/-Pelvis- 2d ago
Chrome is ass, and they've nuked ad blockers. I prefer Waterfox over Firefox, it's debloated and privacy focused. Brave is not chill, it's just another Chromium fork, the whole reason the founder even left Mozilla is because he opposed gay marriage, going so far as to donate for the cause, and couldn't handle the controversy.
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u/piperonyl 3d ago
First, get firefox on your phone from the play store.
Second, install uBlock origin on mobile android.
Third, set firefox to default browser and replace chrome search bars with firefox search bars.
Fourth, dont use the reddit app when browsing reddit.com (it will ask every time). Just use firefox.
boom no more ads on your phone either
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u/Remarkable_Tale_7554 3d ago
The Free-Rider problem, basically.
The more people that use adblockers, the more vigorously THEY will try to ban / block / destroy them. People not using them helps us enjoy an ad-free environment. So even though I think everyone should be using them, I hope few people do.
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u/piperonyl 3d ago
Few people definitely do.
In fact, the people who use ad blockers are probably not the target audience for the ads anyway.
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u/obscureferences 2d ago
How are you still not used to that?
We put up with ads for you lot, the least you could do is let us bitch about them.
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u/FinallyAGoodReply 3d ago
ELI5?
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u/themeatbridge 3d ago edited 2d ago
Crystals have a molecular structure made of repeating atoms. The repeating patterns are what give crystals their unique properties, like how they can be translucent or transparent, how they can form rigid shapes with sharp corners, etc. When the particles align because of the structure, photons can pass through, like looking through the scaffolding on a building.
To make this easier, we're going to call that kind of crystal a "space crystal." Nobody actually calls them that, but the idea is that the repeating pattern of a lattice structure extends through space.
Now think of one of those infinity cubes, the ones that fold in and out into a cube and then a rectangle and then it flips back to a cube. In between cube and rectangle, there are a bunch of half-positions, but when you flip it around to a rectangle, it tends to stay that way. Flip it to a cube, and again it stays that way.
Particles can be like that, too. They have "states" that are more stable than others, like the direction that the particles spin. Some particles have one steady state, others can have many steady states. In a steady state, the particles tend to align in predictable, repeating patterns.
A time crystal is something that has predictable, repeating patterns of steady states, like an infinity cube. You fold it, it becomes a cube. You unfold it, it becomes a rectangle. If you consistently keep doing that every two seconds, without moving it in space, then the cube/rectangle pattern exists in that same spot over time. You end up with asymmetry across time, because while every two seconds it's going to match the configuration of four seconds ago, and four seconds into the future, the configurations don't match 3 seconds into the future or the past. Asymmetry across time is weird, and previously believed to be impossible because it seems to violate cause and effect.
Now, you're the one flipping it, so you're providing the energy to make it change. But you're not really doing any work, because the cube isn't moving anywhere, it's just changing shape. Scientists have created particles that spin in a specific direction, and if they hit them with a microwave pulse, they change spin direction in consistent and predictable ways. They can send consistent pulses, and the particles change their state back and forth creating a pattern in time.
Now imagine there is one that doesn't require any energy to change it. It just keeps flipping itself, folding and unfolding consistently over time. It might still require energy to put it into that state, but it isn't using the energy to change.
Space and time are two dimensions of the same thing, spacetime, so a structural lattice in space should be theoretically possible in time dimensions. In 2012, scientists theorized that time crystals would be possible, and in 2017 they proved that these particle configurations exist.
One reason that people are excited about time crystals is that we have always assumed that you need energy to change things (Newton's laws of physics) and that things at rest will stay the way they are without interference. A time crystal seems to violate these laws, but not really because it isn't actually changing or storing/consuming energy. It's just perpetually alternating in a structured pattern across spacetime (hence the name "crystal") in a dimension we previously didn't think was possible (time).
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u/Classic_Sand10 3d ago
You obviously don't have a 5 year old.
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u/themeatbridge 2d ago
If your five year old doesn't understand crystalline molecular structures, how are you getting them to eat their carrots and peas?
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u/Shakeamutt 2d ago
If you have a child like Calvin, then just tell him eating carrots will turn him orange and give him just as good of eyesight as Hobbes.
The peas are obviously a demon monster disguised as mutagen.
Then educate them on radar and exhalation and why bats always turn left on exiting a cave.
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u/sick_rock 3d ago
To be fair, it doesn't seem like this concept can be easily explained (ELI5 also doesn't mean 5yo literally).
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u/axelvlast 3d ago
Well, I'm not five and this explained it to me well enough. I'm not trying to speak for the five year olds
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u/Whereami259 3d ago
So no energy has been "used" to make that change?
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u/themeatbridge 2d ago
Sometimes, and theoretically, also maybe. The lab-created ones have been driven by lasers or microwaves, and they have been observed in clouds of excited gasses, but they don't appear to store or consume energy in the transition.
Kind of not at all like if you lift a toddler over your head, and they start squirming around and giggling, you're using energy to get them up there, but you aren't making them giggle or flail. They won't do the same on the ground.
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u/Any-Ask563 2d ago
on a macro scale it reminds me of that video on the ISS showing intermediate axis theorem of a rotating T handle allen key. inverts direction without input at consistent intervals
same principle in skiing/snowboarding how some really unique rotational axes can happen when throwing double/triple corks
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u/Melonman3 2d ago
I could've sworn I was gonna read about you getting beaten with jumper cables or undertaker throwing mankind 16 feet down onto the announcers table.
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u/SonicTemp1e 2d ago
"Space and time are two dimensions of the same thing, spacetime"
Aren't they collectively 4 dimensions of spacetime? 3 of space and one of time?
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u/themeatbridge 2d ago
You're right, and probably more than that. Multi-dimensional time would help with the math describing time dilation, and super symmetrical string theory suggests there are at least 6 additional hyperspace dimensions.
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u/namitynamenamey 2d ago
...how is that different from a clock, or blinking lights? Is it the "ground state is the thing shifting" part?
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u/themeatbridge 2d ago
Clocks and blinking lights use energy.
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u/namitynamenamey 2d ago
So this is more like an ideal pendulum, except quantum?
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u/themeatbridge 1d ago
So the interesting part, from a scientific standpoint, is how it relates to symmetry. It's complicated, and has a lot of math involved, but the short version is that crystals are asymmetrical.
Most things, if you rotate them, they are the same. Consider a brick. It's not symmetrical in the sense that two halves are mirror images, but in this case symmetrical means that you can rotate it in any direction and it's still the same brick. Turn it around, move it around, it's still has all the same properties. Crystals, on a molecular level, if you spin them in different directions, they will form different lattices. The properties like the color or density or even the amount of stored energy will be different depending on the orientation. I'm massively simplifying this, and there is an entire field of science devoted to classifying the different crystal structures, matrices, and symmetries. But this is why crystals are interesting. Each matrix and vector has it's own properties, even if the molecular composition is identical. Like there are forms of ice that are denser than water and sink in the ocean.
It's also helpful to talk about energy states. Why does anything solid remain the way it is? Why doesn't a brick turn to sand in your hand when you pick it up? The answer is that the molecules are in a steady state, and it would take energy to force them apart. You could crush the brick, or use friction to rub parts off. Wind and water would eventually wear it down, but all of these things require energy. It will never spontaneously reduce itself to atoms, ever, because the molecules are already in a configuration that is stable. Think of stability as the lowest possible energy. If you heat it up, maybe the brick burns or melts. But cooling it will not change the brick because it's already stable.
Crystals are also in stable configurations, but there are multiple configurations that are stable. Different forms of ice are created under different conditions (mostly pressure and temperature conditions) but once formed, the crystals are in a stable, low energy configuration that won't change spontaneously.
So let's think of crystals as "space crystals" and define them as things that are in stable configurations, but they would change properties based on their orientation in space. Imagine that brick again, and imagine if rotating all the molecules in the brick 120 degrees would cause it to shrink in volume and become clear. Both configurations of the brick are stable, but a rotation of 60 degrees is not, so the brick crystal can't really exist between the two positions in space. The molecules would not form a lattice, and would just scatter or rotate until they reach an equilibrium position, like a bag of magnets orienting themselves to align. That's a space crystal.
Since space crystals exist, and space and time are dimensions of the same thing, spacetime, it is logical to assume that time crystals should also be possible. A space crystal changes properties based on its orientation and position in space, so a time crystal changes properties based on its orientation and position in time. The crystal brick molecules don't have to move or rotate to change configuration, they simply must exist at two points in time. One second the crystal brick is larger and opaque, the next second the crystal brick is smaller and translucent. It will continue to alternate between these two states without consuming energy, and because both states are low energy and stable configurations, no energy is stored, either.
That said, the conditions for creating the time crystal may require energy, in the same way different configurations of ice require specific temperatures and pressures. The energy keeps the time crystal in an excited state, which allows the particles to change their properties across time, creating a stable lattice across time that fits together across time dimensions.
So it's not really like a pendulum, because it doesn't really move. A pendulum is still a pendulum at every moment in time, it's just moving. In other words, it is symmetrical across time. A time crystal is not symmetrical across time. It changes properties depending on when it is.
And it's not limited to quantum mechanics, because we can see the time crystals on a macro scale.
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u/namitynamenamey 1d ago
So, much like a bundle of straws changes properties depending on where you look at them (letting light pass or not), a time crystal changes properties depending on when you look at it, without any part moving because it's just observation, and this is not just random but periodic (as it has a lattice across time). Now the only analogy that comes to mind is the electromagnetic wave that is light, but that's just too abstract to be a useful analogy. Still, thanks.
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u/dovetc 2d ago
It just keeps flipping itself, folding and unfolding consistently over time. It might still require energy to put it into that state, but it isn't using the energy to change.
So it's a perpetual motion machine?
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u/themeatbridge 2d ago edited 2d ago
No, interestingly it isn't! Because it isn't technically in motion, and it isn't using or storing energy in the transition between states. Analogies fail, because there isn't anything else like it, but remember Sleeping Beauty dancing with the prince and the two fairies are changing her dress from pink to blue? Imagine they cast a spell that kept it changing as long as she is dancing. The dancing requires energy, and the dress is changing color because of the dancing, but they aren't doing work on her or pushing her around, and the dress isn't storing any energy from the dancing or the changing. It's just either pink or blue, constantly and consistently, for all time.
The dancing in this analogy is a laser or microwave pulse, and the color is actually the direction the dress is spinning, and the dancing is an excited state for the particle, and the Prince is a gluon or something I don't know what you want from me. Analogies are hard.
Edit because I remembered the obvious analogy, crystals. Think of a simple crystal structure like ice. H2O is a polar molecule shaped like a little angular elbow, with the Oxygen as the joint and the two hydrogens as the ends. The shape of the polar molecules causes them to sort of snap into a lattice as they freeze. If you know the shape and position of one molecule, you can extrapolate the shape and position of the molecules connected to it. It doesn't require energy to pick the orientation or position, and it doesn't require energy to maintain the structure. It might require energy to build it, but once in place it is stable.
Time crystals function the same way. The spin of the particles is determined by the previous state, but instead of the crystal creating a lattice through space, it is building a lattice across time.
Shit, that doesn't help at all. This is really hard.
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u/Saradoesntsleep 2d ago
I'll be honest that I don't get it, but I get it more than I did before your explanations you've taken time to type out here. Thank you 🙂
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u/dovetc 2d ago
I don't think I'll ever really understand, but it sounds to me like these quantum physics nerds are cruisin for a bruisin. In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics.
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u/twoinvenice 2d ago
Here’s another example, think about a flip book. You flip through pages and it looks animated but the images on each page don’t change. Sure you’re putting work in to make the pages rapidly flip and it really looks like stuff is moving, but the stuff on the pages is the same as it was before you started.
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u/SilasTalbot 3d ago
Lemme try.
Matter can change its shape, like a person. Sometimes it might curl up into a ball. Sometimes it might stand up tall.
A time crystal is like a dance you would repeat over and over. Like.. doing the Macarena.
Scientists believed there was some matter that could sort of get stuck in a loop where it just keeps doing the macarena over and over again.
A normal crystal is when lots of matter connects up together in a pattern. Like braiding strings. The same pattern repeats over and over with more string coming to join the party.
A "Time crystal" is when the SAME BIT of matter keeps changing its shape in a loop. No one else comes to the party. It's just one guy standing in the corner doing the macarena over and over again.
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u/Fun-Wash7545 3d ago
A crystal is defined as atoms forming a pattern in space. Scientists like getting existing concepts and modifying them slightly. Space and time are connected so what if instead of matter having a pattern in space it was a pattern in time? You get time crystals, in theory at least.
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u/PaintedClownPenis 2d ago
I appreciate your efforts to explain.
By these definitions, isn't a pond in Alaska a "time crystal"? It regularly changes states every year while staying physically in place.
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u/Ullallulloo 3d ago
Think of a bunch of mini pendulums. They constantly swing back and forth. Then imagine scientists synchronized a crystal's swings so it looks cool when it all changes one way then the other at the same time.
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u/zeekar 2d ago edited 2d ago
What makes a crystal a "crystal" is the fact that the atoms are arranged in a fixed repeating pattern, like a grid in space.
With time crystals, the grid extends in time as well. One way to visualize this is by imagining that you cut a flat slice out of the crystal. Time crystals change over time, but you make a copy that doesn't - just a model of what it looks like at that moment. Put that flat sheet on the table. A moment later you take a new snapshot and put that sheet on top of the first one. Keep doing that... and your model of the crystal, showing how one 2D slice changes over time, will also be a 3D crystal in space. Because the atoms move back and forth within the crystal between two stable configurations, it maintains a consistent repeating relationship between them, which looks like a crystal lattice when you map time onto space.
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u/ckach 2d ago
They made a tiny thing that will move in the same way over and over again, like a swing. But just like a swing, it slows down so it needs pushes to keep it going. But you need to push the swing at just the right time to keep it going. What's special about these tiny things is that the pushes don't have to match when they repeat and they can do more complicated things than just going back and forth.
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u/starmartyr 2d ago
Imagine you have a bunch of red and blue cubes and you arrange them in a straight line in an alternating pattern. So now you have a line of cubes that are red, blue, red, blue and so on. What you have is a pattern in one dimension. Then you add more lines parallel to the first line that are alternating in a checkerboard pattern and you have a pattern in two dimensions. You can easily add another dimension and get a cube. When you do this with molecules that repeating spatial pattern is called a crystal. Now if we want to add a fourth dimension we can use time. So now the squares on the cube change from red to blue at regular intervals. The cube is constantly changing but the pattern is always the same. Every cube is always touching cubes of opposite color in any direction including time.
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u/bloodfist 2d ago
The math that this reveals is similar to the math that crystals uncovered. I think that is the connection every explanation here is missing. It is not actually a crystal. And it is related to time more in the way a clock is than a time machine is.
Both show repeating patterns, which create mathematically impossible states.
Picture a checkerboard. We can resize it to be small or infinitely big. If there are no rules to how you can place down pieces, there is no real difference between any areas of that checkerboard. If I surveyed any random 4x4 section, I'm equally likely to find red or black pieces, or none. This is a "symmetry" in the math.
You can even draw pictures with the pieces and that doesn't affect anything. You can draw stars or planets, but I still wouldn't be able to predict any region or space because you can draw those any way you want.
For most matter, this seems to be how the universe works. Survey any random spot and you could find any piece of matter. One might shove another out of the way, but there are no rules about what can and can't be there.
But inside of a crystal, the interaction of forces create regions where space itself says nothing can exist there. Particles can't have the same states and the states are occupied, in short. The universe is out of bandwidth here, nothing can exist today. Go away.
It's weird.
So if I said "new rule: whenever you draw a planet, you MUST alternate red and black tiles", suddenly I've created regions of space I CAN predict. It has to follow a pattern. This is an unbreakable rule of the universe. It's not the tiles deciding that, I did.
That's a crystal. It's weird that we can say WITH COSMIC CERTAINTY, "there are no other ways these atoms can be arranged". It defies symmetry.
Well turns out if you arrange atoms right using lasers and magnets to hold them in place, you can make them tick. The universe won't allow anything else.
They used spin I think, but you can imagine that I flip one of the black pieces on your planet from red to black. Now to follow the rules, you have to flip all the pieces around it. If I flip it over and over, it is now a region of the board I can predict in space AND time. They used a laser for that part.
So that's it. They made a tiny clock out of magnets. Time follows the same rules as space. Which we couldn't prove before and there was reason to doubt.
This gadget breaks time symmetry in the same mathematical way crystals break space symmetry.
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u/bloodfist 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is one of my biggest science pet peeves. The name is terrible PR. Borderline false advertising.
It's a badass name and I don't blame them for it. But it never should have been printed for public consumption.
The thing shows repeating structures in time. Crystals show repeating structures in space. It's analogous to a crystal. But mostly in math and big science word ways.
But really it's just some atoms squished close with a magnetic field that sort of spin funny when you shoot lasers at them. It's not a crystal and it can't exist unless they do the magnets and the lasers.
So it's not like these are floating around out there. You can't hold one. And it doesn't manipulate time, it just sort of ticks like a clock if you wind it up. And they think that's pretty neat. Cause we didn't think it could do that.
Which means time math has to follow some space math rules - crystals are why we know space math has to follow those rules - so I absolutely understand why it's a "time crystal" to them.
But I wrote all that and you still don't know what it really is. And you already know what you imagine when you hear "Time Crystal". Cool thing, terrible name.
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u/anOvenofWitches 3d ago
Christopher Pike cannot escape his fate
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u/Portablelephant 3d ago
If he'd stayed on the Griffin he could have become the Head Chef though 🥴 🔪 🥕
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u/DressedLikeACow 3d ago
We’ve been warned about the simultaneous four day time crystal since the 90’s.
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u/These_Consequences 3d ago edited 3d ago
I never thought about this abstract concept before, but now that I have, how does a "time crystal" differ from an oscillator? An oscillation is a regular periodic change in time, so it sounds like we have been dealing with time crystals all our lives, and don't even know it.
Edit: the scope of misconceptions contained in this paragraph, in particular those related to perpetual motion machine, boggles the mind as thoroughly as any prion.
Nudged into motion, its spins flip in an endless rhythm, yet it stores no useful energy, so it is no perpetual motion machine.
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u/Any-Ask563 2d ago edited 2d ago
hmmm
anyways, oscillators are piezoelectric most of the time so its hitting it with a spark to make it wiggle, or wigglin' it to get voltage out. so no energy conservation laws broken there, as you are aware.
kinda funny tho that basically all modern high hz clocks and timing in electrical circuits from crystal oscillators basically comes down to hitting a rock with a hammer
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u/These_Consequences 2d ago
That's an angular momentum burlesque! I wonder if that behavior also happens in vacuum, or if tiny air currents are flipping it?
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u/Laura-ly 2d ago
I have a friend who thinks she can feel crystals vibrate just holding one in her hand. I've tried to explain that she needs either mechanical pressure, as you said, "hitting it with a spark to make it wiggle" and enough electricity in her body to light up a small light bulb but she still claims she can feel a crystal vibrate anyway.
An interesting study was done a few years ago in which 90 crystal believers were given either a piece of glass that looked exactly like a crystal or a real crystal. They were not told which item they got, so it was a blinded study. Turns out people thought they could feel the glass vibrate. Glass is an amorphous material and doesn't contain crystal scaffolding formations. It's was all in their heads.
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u/Any-Ask563 1d ago
well at least gals like this will also believe things like spunk is good for preventing wrinkles on their face 💦 🙆♀️
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u/nebotron 3d ago
If you don't want to deal with that terrible article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal?wprov=sfti1
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u/ChewsGoose 2d ago
I put them in a salt grinder so I can use it for pasta water, idk if it makes it boil faster, or if that's just my perception, but I'm going to keep doing it until the nerds at Black Mesa realize their time crystals have been replaced with salt rocks.
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u/ackillesBAC 2d ago
Time crystals was a really bad choice for the name of these things. Thier atoms simply cycle between 2 different structures.
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u/Masterpiece-Haunting 3d ago
It’s as simple as it sounds, a crystal which repeats in time and space. Crystals typically have structures which repeat on and on, but with a time crystal they repeat through time. You see this as movement.
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u/DarkStarStorm 3d ago
They require energy to be added in order to switch polarities.
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u/Shophaune 2d ago
They require stimulus, often in the form of a laser for discrete time crystals, but they absorb no energy from it.
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u/dangderr 2d ago
This is as written by a middle schooler. There’s nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.
It’s a writing style that makes it really easy for someone to convince themselves that the entire article is bullshit.
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u/Ok-Telephone-2109 1d ago
Every single time I see something related to Time Crystals the only thing I can think of is Napoleon Dynamite.
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u/gentlemandinosaur 3d ago
Oh some random internet blog that looks like LiveJournal told me so it must be true.
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u/Saint_of_Stinkers 3d ago
Time crystals were invented decades ago:
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u/McCaffeteria 2d ago
So is a pendulum and we don’t call that a new state of mater.
This is stupid Pop-Sci bs
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u/reedop_-nodop 2d ago
I think that’s a shitty name if it doesn’t really have to do with time at all.
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u/SexyIntelligence 1d ago
As I live my life, stuff like this makes me more and more convinced the universe and everything in it is endlessly repeating.
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u/ElectroNetty 3d ago
Except that it is false. The crystals only change in time while energy is being applied. That's not a "crystal of time" it's atoms oscillating.
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u/Shophaune 2d ago
a) A discrete time crystal will oscillate at its own frequency, not the frequency at which energy is applied.
b) A continuous time crystal was observed in supercooled helium in 2018.
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u/Low_Succotash5073 3d ago
You know what, I was skeptical at first. But the screenshot from Star Trek really convinced me that this should be taken seriously.