Time-tronics

Project Maestro 13 of the National Science Centre Poland
2021/42/A/ST2/00017

Time crystals are quantum many-body systems that due to interactions between particles are able to spontaneously self-organize and start performing periodic motion. Spontaneous formation of periodic behavior in time is a temporal analogue of self-organization of atoms in space and formation of ordinary space crystals. Research on quantum time crystals was initiated by a Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek in 2012. Since then, research on time crystals has developed a lot. Periodically driven systems have become perfect platforms for investigation of time crystals. Spontaneous formation of periodic motion in such systems was proposed and experimentally realized. Various condensed matter phenomena have been predicted in periodically driven systems. For example, Anderson localization, many-body localization, insulating phases and topological phases have been theoretically demonstrated in the time domain.

Electronics, spintronics and atomtronics are fields where condensed matter phenomena are explored to research and realize useful devices. The described state-of-the-art indicates that we can already start developing condensed matter devices where time crystalline structures are the key element. This will pave the way for the new field of time-tronics which can be investigated in many different experimentally attainable systems. Our goal is to propose time-tronic devices and to find optimal experimental platforms for their realization and to convince scientists that time-tronics is attainable in present-day laboratories.

Publications:

• [6] P. Hannaford and K. Sacha,
  Reflection and refraction at a time boundary,
  Nature Photonics, (News & Views), 18, 7 (2024).
  
  
• [5] K. Giergiel, J. Wang, B. J. Dalton, P. Hannaford, and K. Sacha,
  Discrete Time Crystals with Absolute Stability,
  Phys. Rev. B, Letter 108, L180201 (2023).
  
  
• [4] Y. Braver, E. Anisimovas, and K. Sacha,
  Eight-dimensional topological systems simulated using time-space crystalline structures,
  Phys. Rev. B 108, L020303 (2023).
  
  
• [3] Ali Emami Kopaei, Krzysztof Sacha, Lingzhen Guo,
  Classical Phase Space Crystals in Open Environment,
  Phy. Rev. B 107, 214302 (2023).
  
  
• [2] Simone Roncallo, Krzysztof Sacha, Lorenzo Maccone,
  When does a particle arrive?,
  Quantum 7, 968 (2023).
  
  
• [1] Y. Braver, C.-h. Fan, G. Žlabys, E. Anisimovas, and K. Sacha,
  Two-dimensional Thouless pumping in time-space crystalline structures,
  Phys. Rev. B 106, 144301 (2022).
  
  

Dissemination of the results:

• [5] Spotkania z nauką - Czy krysztaly czasowe zmienią fizykę?, 4 lipca 2024,
  
  
• [4] Bliżej Nauki: "Kryształy czasowe", 21 maja 2024,
  
  
• [3] Wywiad w programie This is IT prowadzonym przez dr Macieja Kaweckiego, „Polak pierwszy opisał kryształ czasowy”, 16 stycznia 2024,
  
  
• [2] Wywiad w Radio Kraków, „Okrywając kryształy czasowe”, 16 listopada 2023,
  
  
• [1] Wykład popularno-naukowy Centrum Kopernika Badań Interdyscyplinarnych. „Czym są kryształy czasowe?”, 13 kwietnia 2023,