• They are hypothetical structures that have movement without expending energy.
• First proposed by Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek in 2012, time crystals are structures that appear to have movement even at their lowest energy state, known as a ground state.
• This ability violates a fundamental symmetry in physics called time-translation symmetry, but physicists have now demonstrated that it might actually be possible for time crystals to physically exist.
• Earlier this year, two separate teams of physicists described ways of actually creating such structures.
• Because they passed a preliminary peer review earlier this week, the scientific community is excited about it.
• Being able to create them would mean a leap forward in creating quantum computers, said to be the next evolutionary step in data storage.
• The newly created matter joins a host of other exotic states of matter, such as superconductors, quantum-spin liquids and superfluids.

Source: The Hindu