Space-Time Crystals of Trapped Ions

Abstract

Spontaneous symmetry breaking can lead to the formation of time crystals, as well as spatial crystals. Here we propose a space-time crystal of trapped ions and a method to realize it experimentally by confining ions in a ring-shaped trapping potential with a static magnetic field. The ions spontaneously form a spatial ring crystal due to Coulomb repulsion. This ion crystal can rotate persistently at the lowest quantum energy state in magnetic fields with fractional fluxes. The persistent rotation of trapped ions produces the temporal order, leading to the formation of a space-time crystal. We show that these spacetime crystals are robust for direct experimental observation. We also study the effects of finite temperatures on the persistent rotation. The proposed space-time crystals of trapped ions provide a new dimension for exploring many-body physics and emerging properties of matter.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 15, 2012
Accession Number
ADA569168

Entities

People

  • H. T. Quan
  • Luming Duan
  • Peng Zhang
  • Tongcang Li
  • Xiang Zhang
  • Xiaobo Yin
  • Zhang-qi Yin
  • Zhe-Xuan Gong

Organizations

  • University of California, Berkeley

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Charged Particles
  • Energy Levels
  • Ground State
  • Information Science
  • Ion Traps
  • Laser Cooling
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Magnetic Flux
  • Materials
  • Materials Science
  • Optical Lattices
  • Particle Physics
  • Phase Transformations
  • Quantum Information
  • Quantum Information Science
  • Subatomic Particles
  • Transition Temperature

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing
  • Space