^{(Left) the trapped quantum fluid as seen under a microscope and (right) the shapes of the individual harmonic oscillation states of the quantum fluid when the fluid is trapped in a dip in the intensity of the laser beams (dashed line). Credit: Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34440-0}

^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta, Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

We are used to the notion of classical harmonic oscillators; these are oscillators fluctuating coherently -this is, symmetrically- around their equilibrium position, experiencing a restoring force F proportional to the displacement x (as F = -kx, being k a positive constant commonly known in the mechanics of ideal springs).  

If F is the only force acting on the system (which means there is no friction with the environment) the system is called a simple harmonic oscillator, and it undergoes a sinusoidal oscillations about the equilibrium point, with a constant amplitude and a constant frequency that does...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

Lasers are a well-known technology that have found myriad applications in all aspects of our lives, from sensors used in homes and stores, to advanced physics probes like LIGO that detected the first gravitational waves, and of course information technologies involving memory storage, retrieval, and data transmissions, to name but a few examples. Laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, a technique that utilizes the wave-like nature of light, in which photon wave-packets that are of the same wavelength and phase (matching wave crest-to-crest and trough-to-trough, called constructive interference) can be combined and amplify the magnitude or strength of the light. The electromagnetic radiation is in a coherent state, and this is possible as well because photons obey what are known as Bose statistics, a quantum mechanical property of matter that allow Bose particles...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

We first reported on the break-through observation of a time crystal in our article Time Crystals – A New Phase of Matter. Now, in the next major development, the same team who generated the new phase of matter have created the first time-crystal two-body system in an experiment that seems to bend the laws of physics.

As the name would imply, a time crystal is not an easy system to prepare and experiment with. Perpetual ground state motion in equilibrium defines a time crystal, however observing such motion is famously unfeasible, because experimentally a time crystal only achieves stability if it is isolated from the environment and the observer— shielding the pure quantum state of the system from decoherence— where either the perpetuity or equilibrium requirements can be “bent”. Much like the quantum mechanical bit, or qubit, coupling separate quantum time crystals while...