Researchers have produced the most intricate time crystal to date using an IBM superconducting quantum computer. This two-dimensional quantum material repeats its structure in time, cycling through configurations indefinitely. The achievement advances understanding of quantum systems and their potential for material design.
Time crystals differ from traditional crystals, which feature repeating atomic patterns in space. Instead, time crystals exhibit a pattern that repeats over time, maintaining their configurations without external energy input, as long as environmental interference is minimal.
Nicolás Lorente at the Donostia International Physics Center in Spain, along with colleagues, utilized 144 superconducting qubits in a honeycomb arrangement on an IBM quantum computer. Each qubit simulated a particle with quantum spin, akin to components in quantum materials like magnets. By modulating interactions between these qubits over time with specific strength patterns, the team generated a two-dimensional time crystal—more complex than previous one-dimensional versions.
This setup enabled the researchers to map the system's phase diagram, illustrating all possible states under varying conditions, similar to how a water phase diagram indicates solid, liquid, or gas phases based on temperature and pressure.
Jamie Garcia at IBM, not involved in the study, noted that this work "may be the first in many steps that could eventually lead to quantum computers helping to design new materials based on a fuller picture of all the possible properties a quantum system can have, including those as odd as time crystals."
The underlying equations proved too complex for conventional computers without approximations, highlighting quantum computing's advantages. However, quantum errors necessitated cross-verification with classical methods to assess reliability. Biao Huang at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences remarked, "Two-dimensional systems are practically very challenging to simulate numerically, so the large-scale quantum simulation with more than 100 qubits should provide an anchor point for future research."
This progress links time crystals to applications in quantum sensors and deepens insights into quantum matter. The findings appear in Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67787-1).