From: mk_thisisit
Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, played a pivotal role in the conceptualization and naming of time crystals, despite initial theoretical errors in his early proposals [01:17:18]. His groundbreaking ideas opened up “powerful horizons for doing new physics” [00:09:00].
Conception of Time Crystals
In 2012, Frank Wilczek posed a fundamental question: if the spontaneous organization of matter into crystals is common in space (like diamonds or table salt), could a similar phenomenon occur in the dimension of time [03:26:00], [06:33:00]? He theorized whether a many-body system could achieve a state of spontaneous, periodic motion even in its lowest energy state [06:41:00], [13:05:00]. This concept suggested a “spontaneous breaking of symmetry translation in time” [10:02:00], meaning that a system with continuous translational symmetry in time could give rise to discrete translational symmetry, manifesting as periodic motion [09:32:00], [09:48:00].
The Name “Time Crystal”
The evocative name “time crystal” is owed to Wilczek’s wife, who was not a physicist [00:24:00], [10:24:00]. When Wilczek was explaining his initial article, which he had titled “spontaneous breaking of symmetry translation in time,” his wife, finding the technical term uninteresting, suggested the more intuitive “time crystal” [10:08:00], [10:19:00].
Initial Flaws and Subsequent Developments
Shortly after Wilczek’s 2012 paper on quantum time crystals was published, other physicists identified a mistake in his reasoning: the mechanism he proposed for spontaneous periodic motion in the lowest energy state simply did not work [00:33:00], [11:19:00], [13:17:00].
Despite this initial theoretical flaw, Wilczek’s fundamental idea of time crystals was considered “brilliant” and “fantastic” [11:43:00], [13:21:00]. It ignited a new field of research, prompting physicists to investigate time crystals in different systems and conditions [00:37:00], [13:45:00]. This led to the theoretical proposal by Professor Krzysztof Sacha in 2015, which described a system where a periodic force could induce a spontaneous periodic motion with a different period, a key characteristic of a true time crystal [14:09:00], [14:17:00], [14:52:00]. Experimental realizations of these “discrete time crystals” followed in 2017 at the University of Maryland and Harvard [15:04:00], [15:08:00].
Broader Philosophical Outlook
Beyond his scientific contributions, Frank Wilczek also contemplates profound philosophical questions. When awarded the Templeton Prize, he identified the most important unanswered question in science today as “how consciousness is created from matter” [35:31:00], [36:10:00]. This perspective highlights the intersection of physics with deeper inquiries into existence and the nature of reality.