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To store energy with a time crystal, make it a double. A mathematical analysis shows that putting two time crystals into a coordinated state could create a quantum battery-like device.

Time crystals differ from other quantum states of matter by having a structure that repeats in time 鈥� they cycle through the same set of configurations over and over without any energy input. Though physicists once worried that this would violate fundamental laws of physics and render them impossible, over the course of the past decade researchers have created several types of time crystals in the lab.

at the University of T眉bingen in Germany says it is still difficult to study the thermodynamics of a time crystal 鈥� how it stores energy, takes in heat or produces work 鈥� because it never settles into equilibrium. But he and his colleagues found that this very property can be useful when it comes to two interacting time crystals.

In their model, two systems that can become time crystals are coupled, so they can exchange heat and energy. Additionally, each is illuminated by a laser that adds energy into it. The researchers analysed two scenarios. In the first, both systems act identically 鈥� with the right tuning of the laser light, both can become time crystals, similar to the way two glasses of water would both fill with ice crystals when you lower the temperature. In the second scenario, only one system starts as a time crystal, but because the two are coupled, the second can become one as well due to the influence of the first.

The researchers calculated how efficiently energy could be stored in both scenarios, effectively treating the two connected systems as a battery. Paulino says they were surprised to find that in both cases, the 鈥渂attery鈥� was either more efficient or better at storing energy for a long time if both of its two parts oscillated simultaneously. However, in the scenario where you let one system 鈥渟eed鈥� time crystallisation in the other, the resulting time crystals are even better at storing energy for a long time.

In the past, time crystals have been proposed to have fairly limited use, perhaps as an ingredient for making quantum sensors that could detect, say, magnetic fields. This new work identifies another possible use, says at Keio University in Japan.

at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland says coupling two time crystals is experimentally feasible and the new study adds to understanding of the basics of thermodynamics for systems that never settle into equilibrium, which are 鈥渘otoriously difficult to understand鈥�.

Paulino and his colleagues say their ideas could potentially be tested with existing time crystals made of extremely cold atoms. The researchers also want to take their findings a step further and produce power, essentially designing a time crystal engine, which may require a more complicated way to connect the two crystals, says at Coventry University in the UK, who worked on the project.