Some quantum physicists today are tinkering with an esoteric stage of matter, which seems to violate some of our laws of physics. Over the past few years, physicists around the world have been building another state of matter: the "time crystal." You may be very familiar with the

Some quantum physicists today are patching up an esoteric stage of matter, which seems to violate some of our laws of physics.

In the past few years, physicists around the world have been building another state of matter: "Time crystal." You may be very familiar with the basic states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) that flood the earth's daily life.

But these three substances with different appearances and behaviors are not the whole of the universe—far from that. Scientists have discovered (or created) dozens of more peculiar states of matter, usually with mysterious and peculiar names: superfluid , Bose- Einstein condenser and neutron degenerate matter, to name just a few.

For the past few years, physicists around the world have been building another state of matter: "Time crystal." If this looks like a technical mess of B-level movies, it’s no longer a technical mess. Using quantum computer , some researchers have created a time crystal that they believe firmly builds in the world of physics.

researchers have not officially published their research, but last month they posted a preprint on the ArXiV website (a scientific paper that has not been edited by peer).

So what exactly is the time crystal? It might sound like a key component that makes the time machine work, some kind of future power source, or perhaps a magical tool for the lost alien civilization. But, for scientists, time crystals are actually something more subtle: curiosity about the laws of physics.

Any standard crystal (such as diamonds, emerald or even ice) is defined as the crystal atoms are arranged in a repeating pattern in some way in space. There are three dimensions of space - and the fourth dimension, time. So physicists want to know whether the atoms of crystal can be arranged repeatedly by time.

In practice, this is like this. You create a crystal whose atoms start in a state. If you bombard the crystal with a finely tuned laser, the atoms may flip to another state—and then flip back—and then flip again—and so on—and so on, none of this really absorbs any energy from the laser.

If you take a step back, what you just created is a state of matter that is always moving, indefinitely, without absorbing any energy.

This is not a trivial matter. It violates one of the most sacred principles of classical physics: The second law of thermodynamics . The law states that the number of entropy or disorder always tends to increase. Think of it as a vase, shaking around the edge of the table. The universe wants to push that vase down and let it crush on the floor. To piece it together, you have to put energy into it.

Time crystal is actually a fairly new idea, and the theory was first proposed in 2012 by physicist Frank Wilcheck, the Nobel Prize winner of . Not all physicists accepted this theory at the time, and some claimed that the second law of thermodynamics would look up.

Naturally, firmly researchers discovered the vulnerability. In 2016, physicists at the University of Maryland managed to find a crude time crystal from a set of elliptical atoms. Other groups have created time crystals inside the diamond.

[Related: In Photos: Rare Quantum Computer Core]

But these latest times Crystal Tinker did something different. They turned to Google and used a quantum computer: a device that leverages quirks, a seemingly mysterious physics that can guide the universe on the smallest scale. Quantum computers do not use silicon wafers like the "classic" computers used daily, but operate directly with atoms or particles. This allows physicists to perform experiments that can be very difficult for traditional computers, because quantum physics — which allows particles to become multiple things at the same time and allows particles to interact at seemingly impossible distances — to become very profound.Using traditional computers, “the ability to simulate rules… becomes very difficult,” says Gabriel Perdue, a quantum computer researcher at Fermi Labs, a national laboratory in the suburbs of Chicago, focusing on high-end particle physics.

However, by arranging particles in a processor of a quantum computer, it is possible to truly study tiny particle systems as if they were building blocks. It's a powerful ability that you won't see much in the non-quantum world.

"We don't calculate, you know, how far can baseball go... by building micro baseball players and doing simulations," Perdue said. But he said doing something very similar on a very small scale is the way researchers use Google’s quantum computers to make their time crystals.

In this case, physicists can take out the atoms, rearrange them, and then use laser pulses to drive the time crystals to This setup allows researchers to create time crystals larger than any previous time crystals. While many previous time crystals were brief and disintegrated in several round-trip cycles, the scientists behind this latest time crystal work were surprised by the stability they created.

"For me, the most exciting thing here is," Perdue said, "it shows how to really simulate the quantum physics system using quantum computers and study it in a very novel and exciting way."

So, will these time crystals really trigger a new wave of new time machines?

may not be. But they may help make quantum computers more powerful. Engineers have been working hard for years to create something that can be used as quantum computer memory. Some are equivalent to silicon that supports traditional computers. Physicists believe that time crystals can achieve this goal.

Perdu said that this experiment also proves the power of quantum computers in doing science. “The same platform allows you to easily simulate some cool algorithms,” he said. “The same applies, and I think it works better to simulate such systems.”