Physicists sync distant time crystals across 40 micrometers

Researchers at TU Dortmund found that multiple continuous time crystals inside a gallium arsenide semiconductor can synchronize their electron-nuclear spin oscillations across distances up to 40 micrometers — over a thousand times the size of a single oscillator. The study was published in Nature Communications.

• Time crystals form inside a GaAs semiconductor doped with indium and silicon
• Each electron interacts with about one million nuclear spins near -270 °C
• Synchronization holds up to 40 µm apart; beyond that crystals oscillate independently
• The effect echoes Huygens' 1665 observation of synchronized pendulum clocks