00:00In ordinary crystals, in the lowest energy state,
00:03the positions of the atoms that form a pattern,
00:05a type of arrangement, are always the same.
00:08However, there may be a system of atoms in which,
00:11in the lowest energy state, this pattern changes over time,
00:15periodically, like a chessboard where the pattern would change regularly.
00:20This was the question posed by Nobel laureate Franz Wilczek in 2012.
00:25In his article, Quantum Time Crystals,
00:28he proposed something radical.
00:30What if a system of particles or atoms, even in its lowest energy state,
00:35could still exhibit motion, repeating itself periodically in time?
00:40This idea was shocking because normally the ground state,
00:44the lowest energy state, is static.
00:47If you let a pendulum swing, it stops at its lowest position.
00:52But Wilczek imagined that, at the quantum level,
00:55there could be eternal oscillations without any energy input.
00:59So it wouldn't be a perpetual motion machine,
01:02because no energy is extracted from that system.
01:05He gave a simple model, a superconducting ring.
01:08Inside it, the electrons move perpetually in the ground state.
01:12In such a state, motion and minimal energy would coexist.
01:17You are struggling to commit to
Comments