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Time crystals arise from quantum interactions once thought to prevent their formation

Nature has many rhythms: the seasons result from Earth’s movement around the sun, the ticking of a pendulum clock results from the oscillation of its pendulum. These phenomena can be understood with very simple equations. However, regular rhythms can also arise in a completely different way—by themselves, without an external clock, through the complex interaction of many particles. Instead of uniform disorder, a fixed rhythm emerges—this is referred to as a “time crystal.”

Calculations by TU Wien (Vienna) now show that such time crystals can also be generated in a completely different way than previously thought. The quantum physical correlations between the particles, which were previously thought to be harmful for the emergence of such phenomena, can actually stabilize time crystals. This is a surprising new insight into the quantum physics of many-particle systems.

The findings are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Catalyst evolution reveals the unsung heroes in industrial ammonia production

Researchers at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Energy Conversion and Clariant have unveiled new insights into the complex catalyst systems used in industrial ammonia production. By examining the structural evolution of these catalysts, the study highlights the critical role of promoters in enhancing performance and stability.

The Haber-Bosch process, a cornerstone of industrial ammonia production, has remained largely unchanged for over a century. However, researchers at the Departments of Inorganic Chemistry and Interface Science of the Fritz Haber Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, and Clariant have made significant strides in the mechanistic understanding of the highly complex industrial catalyst that drives this process.

By using advanced characterization techniques like operando scanning and near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the team has decoded the complex interactions within multi-promoted ammonia synthesis catalysts.

New tool steers AI models to create materials with exotic quantum properties

The artificial intelligence models that turn text into images are also useful for generating new materials. Over the last few years, generative materials models from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta have drawn on their training data to help researchers design tens of millions of new materials.

But when it comes to designing materials with exotic quantum properties like superconductivity or unique magnetic states, those models struggle. That’s too bad, because humans could use the help. For example, after a decade of research into a class of materials that could revolutionize , called quantum spin liquids, only a dozen material candidates have been identified. The bottleneck means there are fewer materials to serve as the basis for technological breakthroughs.

Now, MIT researchers have developed a technique that lets popular generative materials models create promising quantum materials by following specific design rules. The rules, or constraints, steer models to create materials with unique structures that give rise to quantum properties.

Quantum memories reach new milestone with secure quantum money protocol

Integration into a quantum money protocol shows that memories can now handle very demanding applications for quantum networking.

Researchers at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory (Sorbonne Université, CNRS, ENS-Université PSL, Collège de France), together with colleagues from LIP6 (Sorbonne Université, CNRS), have taken a major step forward in : for the first time, they have integrated an optical quantum memory into a cryptographic protocol. This achievement, based on Wiesner’s unforgeable quantum money scheme, demonstrates that quantum memories are now mature enough to operate under very demanding conditions for networking.

In a study published on September 19 in Science Advances, the Paris team implemented Wiesner’s quantum money, a foundational idea in that relies on the no-cloning theorem to prevent counterfeiting. Unlike previous demonstrations that bypassed storage, this experiment incorporated an intermediate memory step—an essential capability for real-world applications where quantum data must be held and released on demand.

Brain Cells Behind Depression Identified for the First Time

Research on rare post-mortem brain tissue shows changes in gene activity, offering new insight into the biological basis of depression. Researchers from McGill University and the Douglas Institute have discovered two distinct types of brain cells that show alterations in individuals with depressi

First-Ever Simulations Reveal Ghost Particles Shapeshifting in Violent Neutron Star Mergers

New simulations show that neutrino flavor transformations change both the composition and the signals left behind after neutron star collisions. When two neutron stars collide and merge, the result is one of the most energetic events in the universe. These cataclysms generate multiple kinds of si

The Hunt for Dark Matter Has a New, Surprising Target

Dark Matter remains one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics. Many theoretical proposals (axions, WIMPs) and 40 years of extensive experimental search have not explained what Dark Matter is. Several years ago, a theory that seeks to unify particle physics and gravity introduced a radically different possibility: superheavy, electrically charged gravitinos as Dark Matter candidates.

A recent paper in Physical Review Research by scientists from the University of Warsaw and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics shows that new underground detectors, in particular the JUNO detector that will soon begin taking data, are well-suited to detect charged Dark Matter gravitinos even though they were designed for neutrino physics. Simulations that bridge elementary particle physics with advanced quantum chemistry indicate that a gravitino would leave a signal in the detector that is unique and unambiguous.

In 1981, Nobel Prize laureate Murray Gell-Mann, who introduced quarks as fundamental constituents of matter, observed that the particles of the Standard Model—quarks and leptons—appear within a purely mathematical theory formulated two years earlier: N=8 supergravity, noted for its maximal symmetry. N=8 supergravity includes, in addition to the Standard Model matter particles of spin 1/2, a gravitational sector with the graviton (of spin 2) and 8 gravitinos of spin 3/2. If the Standard Model is indeed connected to N=8 supergravity, this relationship could point toward a solution to one of the hardest problems in theoretical physics — unifying gravity with particle physics. In its spin ½ sector, N=8 supergravity contains exactly 6 quarks (u, d, c, s, t, b) and 6 leptons (electron, muon, taon and neutrinos), and it forbids any additional matter particles.

Mental Time Travel: Scientists Explore the Mysteries of Autobiographical Hypermnesia

Researchers examined a girl with exceptional memory recall. Her case could transform understanding of how we relive the past and imagine the future. Autobiographical memory is the ability to recall personal experiences that have shaped us since childhood. It includes both emotional and sensory re

Autism’s High Prevalence Could Be an Evolutionary Trade-Off

Autism-linked genes evolved rapidly in humans. They may have aided brain growth and language. A recent study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution by Oxford University Press suggests that the relatively high prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders in humans may be rooted in evolutionary hi

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