sixoclock Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Why IS the Pentagon looking into time crystals? DARPA launches program to study recently-discovered quantum structure - but many of its uses are not 'open for discussion' Time crystals, first observed last year, called the first 'non-equilibrium matter' DARPA launched program called Driven and Nonequilibrium Quantum Systems In the program, researchers will work to develop and demonstrate the concepts They could be used for sensors or atomic clocks to measure gravitational waves But, DARPA officials say many of the applications are 'not open for discussion' Last year, scientists revealed the discovery of an astounding new form of matter they claimed breaks the symmetry of time. In time crystals, the atoms follow a repeating pattern in time rather than space, and physicists have dubbed the material one of the first examples of non-equilibrium matter. But, what exactly what time crystals could be used for has remained somewhat unclear. The Defense Department’s research branch has now launched a new initiative to study time crystals and their potential applications, in a program called Driven and Nonequilibrium Quantum Systems (DRINQS). With the new program from DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, teams of ‘theoreticians and experimentalists’ will work to drive quantum systems consisting of a large number of particles. Time crystals can’t settle down to a motionless equilibrium, UC Berkeley researcher Norman Yao explained when the discovery was revealed last year. Just like Jell-O jiggles when it is tapped, the structure of time crystals repeats in time with periodic ‘kicks.’ In the new program, the teams will have to develop protocols for stabilizing coherence in such a system, and demonstrate proof-of-principle concepts that achieve a minimum of 10-fold improvement over the standard limits. This could even be increased to 100-fold. MORE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rasbridge Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 This is the most interesting article that I can recall reading on this forum!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixoclock Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 5 hours ago, rasbridge said: This is the most interesting article that I can recall reading on this forum!!! Thank you. Time crystals are relatively new. The idea was first described by a Nobel laureate and MIT professor Frank Wilczek in 2012 and created by Christopher Monroe in 2016. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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