Abstract
We consider the possibility that classical dynamical systems display motion in their lowest-energy state, forming a time analogue of crystalline spatial order. Challenges facing that idea are identified and overcome. We display arbitrary orbits of an angular variable as lowest-energy trajectories for nonsingular Lagrangian systems. Dynamics within orbits of broken symmetry provide a natural arena for formation of time crystals. We exhibit models of that kind, including a model with traveling density waves.
- Received 3 April 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.160402
© 2012 American Physical Society
Viewpoint
Crystals of Time
Published 15 October 2012
Researchers propose how to realize time crystals, structures whose lowest-energy states are periodic both in time and space.
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