Time crystals: a review

Time crystals are time-periodic self-organized structures postulated by Frank Wilczek in 2012. While the original concept was strongly criticized, it stimulated at the same time an intensive research leading to propositions and experimental verifications of discrete (or Floquet) time crystals—the structures that appear in the time domain due to spontaneous breaking of discrete time translation symmetry. The struggle to observe discrete time crystals is reviewed here together with propositions that generalize this concept introducing condensed matter like physics in the time domain. We shall also revisit the original Wilczek’s idea and review strategies aimed at spontaneous breaking of continuous time translation symmetry.

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Reports on progress in physics. Physical Society

• Publication date

  2017-04-12

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Physics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1088/1361-6633/aa8b38arXiv 1704.03735PMID 28885193
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017influential reference
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017influential reference
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2017cited by this paper
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  2016influential reference
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016influential reference
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
• Anderson localization in the time domain

  2016influential reference
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  2016influential reference
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2016cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015influential reference
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2015cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2014influential reference
• Modeling spontaneous breaking of time-translation symmetry

  2014cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2014cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
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  2013cited by this paper
• Time crystals: Can diamagnetic currents drive a charge density wave into rotation?

  2013cited by this paper
• Wilczek reply:.

  2013cited by this paper
• Distribution of the ratio of consecutive level spacings in random matrix ensembles.

  2012cited by this paper
• Rotating Casimir systems: Magnetic-field-enhanced perpetual motion, possible realization in doped nanotubes, and laws of thermodynamics

  2012cited by this paper
• Quantum time crystals.

  2012influential reference
• Branched quantization.

  2012influential reference
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  2012cited by this paper
• Spontaneous Generation of a Crystalline Ground State in a Higher Derivative Theory

  2012cited by this paper
• Many-body Anderson localization in one-dimensional systems

  2012cited by this paper
• Space-time crystals of trapped ions.

  2012cited by this paper
• Nonequilibrium quantum phase transitions in the Ising model

  2012cited by this paper
• Classical time crystals.

  2012influential reference
• Comment on "Space-time crystals of trapped ions".

  2012cited by this paper
• Comment on "Quantum time crystals".

  2012cited by this paper
• Spontaneous symmetry probing

  2011cited by this paper
• Majorana fermions in equilibrium and in driven cold-atom quantum wires.

  2011cited by this paper
• Solution of the Schrodinger Equation with a Hamiltonian Periodic in Time

  2011cited by this paper
• Bose-Einstein condensate in a double well potential in the vicinity of a critical point

  2010cited by this paper
• Disorder and interference: localization phenomena

  2010cited by this paper
• Observation of the Anderson metal-insulator transition with atomic matter waves: Theory and experiment

  2009cited by this paper
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  2008cited by this paper
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  2007cited by this paper
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  2007cited by this paper
• On the dynamics

  2007cited by this paper
• Many-body localization in the Heisenberg XXZ magnet in a random field

  2007cited by this paper
• Experimental observation of the Anderson metal-insulator transition with atomic matter waves.

  2007cited by this paper
• Localization of interacting fermions at high temperature

  2006cited by this paper
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  2006cited by this paper
• Symmetry Breaking

  2006cited by this paper
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  2005cited by this paper
• Scaling theory of localization

  2004influential reference
• Efficient simulation of one-dimensional quantum many-body systems.

  2003cited by this paper

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• Dissipative Dicke Time Quasicrystals

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• Bridging the classical and quantum regimes in a dissipative Ising chain

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• Quantum Dissipative Continuous Time Crystals.

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  2025cites this paper
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• Classifying one-dimensional Floquet phases through two-dimensional topological order

  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
• Localization in the frequency domain

  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
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  2025cites this paper
• Tunable discrete quasi-time crystal from a single drive

  2025cites this paper
• Running Quantum Computers in Discovery Mode

  2025cites this paper
• Observation of Discrete Time Quasicrystal in Rydberg Atomic Gases

  2025cites this paper
• Emergent ac Effect in Nonreciprocal Coupled Condensates

  2025cites this paper
• Realizing topological quantum walks on NISQ digital quantum computer

  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
• Emergent symmetries in prethermal phases of periodically driven quantum systems

  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
• Boundary time crystals as AC sensors: Enhancements and constraints

  2024cites this paper
• Prethermalization in the PXP model under continuous quasiperiodic driving

  2024cites this paper
• Phase transitions from heating to non-heating in $SU(1,1)$ quantum dynamics: Applications to Bose-Einstein condensates and periodically driven coupled oscillators

  2024cites this paper
• Arresting quantum chaos dynamically in transmon arrays

  2024cites this paper
• Emergent transient time crystal from a fractional Langevin equation with white and colored noise

  2024cites this paper
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  2024cites this paper
• Correlations in circular quantum cascades

  2024cites this paper