Researchers from QuTech created a time crystal, a novel exotic quantum phase of matter, using a quantum computer based on diamond. Together with a simultaneous experiment by Google, the results shed new light on the physics of out-of-equilibrium quantum systems. The team reports their findings today in Science.

In the crystals we encounter in our daily lives, such as diamonds or table salt, the atoms spontaneously form a stable repeating pattern in space. Can something similar happen in time? Read more