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Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

technologyreview.com

61–70 of 130 posts

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#61
>But the laws of physics are not only symmetrical in space but also in time.

Can someone explain what this means? It makes sense that physical laws are symmetrical in space. But in time? I thought that would not be the case because of entropy/irreversible processes etc. What am I missing? The whole article rests on this premise.

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#62
post #61

>But the laws of physics are not only symmetrical in space but also in time. Can someone explain what this means? It makes sense that physical laws are symmetrical in space. But in time? I thought that would not be the case because of entropy/irreversible processes etc. What am I missing? The whole article rests on this premise.

Thermodynamics (from where you get entropy) are a statistical description of physical laws taking process over many particles.

When you look at each particle in the thermodynamic system, you can easily see there is indeed simmetry in time.

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#63
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the great explanation. Serious question: Can I ask how you happen to know so much about this subject?

Years of practice :-) Seriously though, I don't actually know much about QM, I only know the One Thing that makes the rest of QM easy to understand (kind of like knowing Lisp makes the rest of computer programming easy to understand). In case you want to know that One Thing, it's written up here: http://www.flownet.com/ron/QM.pdf There's also a movie version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaecUuEqfc

Cool, thanks for the info.

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#64
post #61

>But the laws of physics are not only symmetrical in space but also in time. Can someone explain what this means? It makes sense that physical laws are symmetrical in space. But in time? I thought that would not be the case because of entropy/irreversible processes etc. What am I missing? The whole article rests on this premise.

Noethers' theorem:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether%27s_theorem

Groundbreaking stuff. But it is not something you would want to go over in a weekend.

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#65
EARTH HAS 4 CORNER SIMULTANEOUS 4-DAY TIME CUBE WITHIN SINGLE ROTATION. 4 CORNER DAYS PROVES 1 DAY 1 GOD IS TAUGHT EVIL. IGNORANCE OF TIMECUBE4 SIMPLE MATH IS RETARDATION AND EVIL EDUCATION DAMNATION. CUBELESS AMERICANS DESERVE - AND SHALL BE EXTERMINATED.

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#66
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years of practice :-) Seriously though, I don't actually know much about QM, I only know the One Thing that makes the rest of QM easy to understand (kind of like knowing Lisp makes the rest of computer programming easy to understand). In case you want to know that One Thing, it's written up here: http://www.flownet.com/ron/QM.pdf There's also a movie version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaecUuEqfc

Cool, thanks for the info.

You may want to also look for an article by N. David Mermin "Is the moon there when nobody looks"

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#67
So, states change without physical objects changing position. Meanwhile we pitiful humans, have a hard time distinguishing the objects that exchange states.

...and can someone tell me where the actual time comes into play?

Sure, one can say it is "something not unlike" the manipulation of time, and yet... somehow... it seems like we're just deciding to call it something it is not, since it certainly seems similar enough.

If I carve a piece of wood, such that it resembles a gun, it can play the part of a gun, but only until a person with an actual gun challenges me to a duel.

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#68
post #13

Can someone explain what computations using __zero energy__ from related article [1] actually means ? [1] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/426917/physicists-predict... """ Another is the possibility that it may be possible to exploit time crystals to perform computations using zero energy. As Wilczek puts it, “it is interesting to speculate that a…quantum mechanical system whose states could be interpreted as a col…

They literally mean "not spending any energy doing the computation". We spend energy on computation for two fundamental reasons: 1) zeroing data and 2) error correction. You avoid zeroing data by doing reversible computation. You avoid error correction by finding really really well behaved / stable systems. Time crystals are reversible basically by definition, and Wilczek is saying that maybe there might be some time…

Just for reference, for people unfamiliar with the name: Wilczek also worked on the theory of anyons, the non-Abelian form of which are at the heart of Microsoft's work on topological quantum computers. (He was the one who coined the term 'anyon'.)

His work on anyons coupled with his work on time crystals makes him highly qualified to speak on what would be useful computational structures.

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#69
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the great explanation. Serious question: Can I ask how you happen to know so much about this subject?

Years of practice :-) Seriously though, I don't actually know much about QM, I only know the One Thing that makes the rest of QM easy to understand (kind of like knowing Lisp makes the rest of computer programming easy to understand). In case you want to know that One Thing, it's written up here: http://www.flownet.com/ron/QM.pdf There's also a movie version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaecUuEqfc

Just be aware that while Dr. Garret is very smart (and very accomplished with software) he is not a physicist. When this talk first came out I asked a couple people who do know QFT in detail about it and they were quite dismissive.

Re: Physicists Create World’s First Time Crystal

#70
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC reversible computations only take zero energy if you perform them infinitely slowly.

Just curious, is there a difference between infinitely slowly and not at all?

I think the idea is that as the speed approaches 0, the energy cost also approaches 0.
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