Time Crystal: A Game Changer for Quantum Computers

Time Crystal: A Game Changer for Quantum Computers

Scientists from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) along with several others from around the world, have used Google Quantum AI hardware to reportedly develop the world’s first-time crystal.

As reported by the scientist, time crystals were speculated as a quantum state that changes continuously but doesn’t use any energy.

The experiment states to have simulated the particle that can be the perfect superconducting material to help make quantum computing a reality. Scientists were able to create the time crystal for roughly 100 seconds using qubits (quantum computing’s version of the traditional computer bit) inside the core of Google’s Sycamore quantum processor.

Time crystals are captivating objects to physicists because they essentially avoid the second law of thermodynamics, one of the most ironclad laws in physics. They can cycle between quantum states consistently without losing or using any energy. It states that entropy (a rough analog for the amount of disorder in a system) always increases.

The experiment was the outcome of teamwork between the scientists and Google Quantum AI, which is a joint initiative between Google, NASA, and the non-profit Universities Space Research Association.

In the quantum world, objects behave both like point particles and little waves at the same time, with the magnitude of these waves in any given region of space representing the probability of finding a particle at that location. But random defects in a crystal’s structure or programmed randomness in the interaction strengths between qubits can cause a particle’s probability wave to cancel itself out everywhere apart from one very small region.

The research mechanics report describes the creation of a special microscopic rig where a time crystal is surrounded by superconducting qubits, which can be thought of as the quantum equivalent of a classical bit, and the main driving force of quantum computers.