German physicists have provided a theoretical basis for the existence of a discrete "time liquid" — an unusual phase of matter in which thermal fluctuations do not destroy but instead generate a local rhythmic order in time. The preprint of the study has been posted on the arXiv server, the website infohub.kz reports.
The authors of the work are Zuo Wang and Marios H. Michael of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Germany. They modeled a process analogous to the melting of a solid crystalline body, but applied to quantum systems ordered not in space but in time.
An ordinary time crystal cyclically repeats its state under external laser driving, breaking the fundamental symmetry of time translation. The researchers studied the behavior of the system in an unstable external environment: a model of a two-dimensional lattice of interacting spins was placed inside an electromagnetic resonator subject to random thermal fluctuations.
The calculations showed that the spins begin to oscillate coherently at half the frequency of the resonator. At the same time, the stable rhythm is periodically interrupted by topological phase defects — "time solitons." These disruptions destroy strict long-range synchronization but fully preserve the local temporal rhythm, closely mirroring the behavior of water molecules in a melting block of ice.
The scientists noted that it was moderate heat that formed the periodic structure: at low temperatures the effect was absent, while under strong overheating the order disappeared. The resulting phase shifts on average restore time symmetry, which makes the existence of such a state possible in thermal equilibrium.
The discovery remains theoretical for now and awaits physical realization.