The time crystals will protect us from the death of the universe

At the end of many years, our sun will also fade and breathe its last breath. The stars in the universe will die one by one, some of them in a dismal twinkle, and some of them in a terrifying supernova. Even the black holes will disappear into the upheaval. Only the dark and empty space will be left. The human race, of course, will disappear many years before that

A Nobel laureate has developed a new, mathematically valid idea of ​​a 'time crystal' that may help humans bypass the inevitable death of the universe, and continue to exist after it.

In one of Asimov's best-known science fiction stories, "The Last Question" from 1956, the writer follows the future of the universe as humanity spreads across its length and breadth. Throughout the story, the inevitable presence of the second law of thermodynamics is emphasized, which states that the amount of entropy in the universe increases over time. Entropy reflects the disorder and chaos in the universe, or even in smaller systems like the Earth. From this it turns out that with every year that passes, the disorder in the universe increases: stars fade slowly, molecules break into atoms and people die - and their living and orderly bodies disintegrate into simple molecules. All these are processes that reflect the increase in entropy in the universe.

Fortunately, there are processes that reduce entropy on the surface of the earth. The sun's rays carry energy that allows living things to carry out processes of photosynthesis and reconnect individual atoms into complex molecules that form the plants, and ultimately serve as food for man and reintegrate into his body. All these processes exist at the expense of the energy coming from the sun, and reduce the entropy on the surface of the earth, but the disorder in the rest of the universe continues to grow, and even at a faster rate.

Sounds good? As the Poles say, No Schwinn. In the meantime we are getting along. But eventually, at the end of many years, our sun will also fade and breathe its last breath. The stars in the universe will die one by one, some of them in a dismal twinkle, and some of them in a terrifying supernova. Even the black holes will disappear into the upheaval. Only the dark and empty space will be left. The human race, of course, will disappear many years before that.

But what if we manage to survive until that point? This may also have troubled Asimov, who described in his story a powerful supercomputer that accompanied humans from the twentieth century until billions of years later, when the end of the universe was near. That hypothetical computer also managed to survive the expansion of global entropy. This is a seemingly impossible challenge, because it means that the computer will run on some kind of energy reservoir, even after entropy has eliminated every good bit of matter capable of being used as an energy source.

Now, Nobel Prize winner Frank Wiltsek claims that it may be possible to create such a computer, through the application of a new hypothetical principle which he calls a 'time crystal'. Wiltsek's time crystal may, in principle, form the basis of a computer that can continue to function long after the entire universe around it has succumbed to the demands of entropy.

The idea for the time crystal came from understanding the basis of ordinary crystals. In ordinary crystals, such as quartz or amethyst, the atoms are arranged in a certain cycle that repeats itself throughout the crystal. The atoms arrange themselves in this way because any other way to arrange them requires a relatively large amount of energy. Because of this, over time they reach an arrangement that requires a minimum of energy, and this is the crystalline arrangement.

The arrangement of the atoms in the crystals takes place in the three dimensions of our existence, which together create the three-dimensional space in which we live. But Einstein taught us many years ago that time is nothing but another type of dimension. Why, then, do we not examine the possibility of a cyclical arrangement of atoms or electrons also along the dimension of time?

This was Wiltsek's line of thought when he first came up with the 'time crystal' idea. He realized that it is also possible to create periodicity according to time: for example, the holiday electron around the atomic nucleus, returning to its original place, is endowed with a symmetrical periodicity in time. He also decided that it is possible to find paths of movement for the electron in which it will continue to move with zero investment of energy, just as the atoms in a crystal line up in their right place. The electrons will continue to circle forever without needing energy from the outside.

Wiltsek demonstrated the mathematical validity of the time crystal at a recent symposium held at the University of Cambridge in England, and claimed that it would be possible to build such a device, but made it clear that he did not know the level of difficulty involved.

Wiltsek's time crystal may serve as the basis for an 'eternal', or near-eternal, computer. By monitoring the change of the state of the electron according to its position in the temporal cycle, two values ​​can be attributed to it: zero and one. These two values ​​correspond to the two values ​​of computerized bits. A single time crystal may contain a large number of such bits, and since they continue to operate without an external energy source, it will be able to function for a very long time even after entropy has consumed all energy sources. Not forever, of course, since reading the data stored in the electrons will itself require a certain amount of energy, but it will survive for a very long time into eternity.

What would be the role of such a computer, if we manage to build it one day? Opinions differ on that. It is possible that it could be used as a kind of 'lifeboat' for the multitude of information collected over the years of humanity's life, and be a silent monument to the universe that has disappeared from the world. Another, more exciting possibility is that humans could copy their minds into it, and it would simulate a virtual world for them in which they could continue to exist for a few billion more years, before it too would cease to exist.

All these are still vague ideas for a very distant future. And yet, perhaps the most exciting use of the near-eternal computer is the one devised by Asimov himself, whereby the computer will continue to wonder about the physical laws of the universe until it finds a solution to the entropy problem and discovers a way back. And to quote directly from the story, which was published in the book 'Mechhar Kopol Tish' translated by Hana Barkan -

The recognition of A.K. [The computer] embraced within her all that was once world and fullness and she pondered deeply on all that was now the chaos. Step by step, this should be done.

and H.K. He said "Let there be light!"

let there be light -

• Link to the story "The Last Question" by Asimov
• Link to the article on the time crystal on the New Scientist website
• Link to purchase the book "Tomorrow twice nine" in Hebrew (recommended!)