Pentagon hopes time crystal research will propel it into a new, hi-tech future

THE Pentagon is studying time crystals. And it won’t say why. But their itty-bitty, tiddly-widdly spinning atoms are worth a Dr Who script of their own.

A YEAR ago they were impossible.

Now the Pentagon wants some.

Time crystals have burst upon the world of physics.

And they offer a unique window to the behaviour of the infintessimally small quantum-scale universe.

Here, the rules of physics change. It’s not the same set of predictable formula’s we’ve figured out up here.

Down there, beneath the scale of the atom, the rules need to be rewritten.

Now time cyrstals - where a web of atoms spin in a perpetual loop - has become the focus of new research by the US military.

Time crystals — where atoms resonate in a perpetual loop without losing energy — appear to have been created in the laboratory.

It won’t say exactly why.

But we can guess.

From unhackable internet to radar that can tell you all there is to know about any approaching aircraft, the astounding behaviour of the universe’s fundamental building blocks have unimaginable potential.

And the unusual resilience of time crystals could help make these a reality.

TIME TO THINK

The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has admitted its allocated some of its researchers and resources to examine the implications of this breakthrough.

It was little more than a year ago when researchers announced they’d actually created these bizarre crystals in the lab for the first time.

The idea they could exist was only thought up in 2011.

They’re not quite the crystals that form the key to time, as per the Dr Who universe.

In our universe, these batches of constantly spinning and oscillating atoms are an intriguing piece of clockwork. Their steady spins will switch directions under the pulse of an electromagnetic force.

But, as with all things quantum, their reaction is odd.

Time crystals were supposed to be physically impossible. Now they're not: https://t.co/OYxRquUHzQ pic.twitter.com/RuLGeq2zlG

— Nature News & Comment (@NatureNews) March 8, 2017

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The timing of their switch doesn’t always match the pulse.

To cut a long story short, this means they become more stable in the face of outside influences once they are given a little external push — just as a moving hand can keep a broomstick standing upright in the face of gravity.

DARPA’s project code name offers some insight as to their potential use: Driven and Nonequilibrium Quantum Systems (DRINQS).

It’s probably a joke for “drinks all around” for those that can understand why time crystals behave the way they do.

“There might be applications related to measuring things with exquisite sensitivity in time and magnetic field domains,” DARPA’s defence science program manager Ale Lukaszew told Gizmodo. “Not a lot of these applications are open for discussion.”

CLOCKING ON

We already know quantum technology is breaking new ground in ultra-high resolution sensors and computers.

“But there’s a hitch,” DARPA admits. “The performance and reliability of quantum sensors and devices is dependent on the length of time the underlying quantum states can remain coherent. If you wait long enough, interactions with the environment will make the state behave like a conventional classical system.”

What they’re saying is quantum particles are extremely sensitive to their surrounds. This causes them to rapidly lose their strange — but useful — properties.

The stability time crystals represent could overcome, or at least reduce, this decay.

“DARPA, with an eye on practical quantum devices and sensors in compact sizes, has set its sight on demonstrating protocols that can dramatically extend the longevity of the coherence of quantum systems,” its press release reads.

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The stability time crystals offer means ... “we may be able to reproduce the performance of the best sensors, such as atomic clocks and magnetometers, in small and robust devices for military use,” Lukaszew says.

Atomic clocks already exist. But they’re huge machines which supercool atoms and blast them with lasers to the point where they can be isolated from each other.

A portable atomic clock would mean navigation systems could become far more accurate. The vulnerable satellites currently driving the GPS network could even become redundant.

“One exciting potential application for extremely precise atomic-based time measurements is measuring gravitational fields, which could be very useful in tunnel and cave detection,” Lukaszew added.