Space-time crystals from particle-like topological solitons
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866915405549797376 |
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| author | Zhao, Hanqing Smalyukh, Ivan I. |
| author_facet | Zhao, Hanqing Smalyukh, Ivan I. |
| contents | Time crystals are unexpected states of matter that spontaneously break time translation symmetry either in a discrete or continuous manner. However, spatially-mesoscale space-time crystals that break both the space and time symmetries have not been reported. Here we report a continuous space-time crystal in a nematic liquid crystal driven by ambient-power, constant-intensity unstructured light. Our numerically constructed 4-dimensional configurations exhibit good agreement with these experimental findings. While meeting the established criteria to identify time-crystalline order, both experiments and computer simulations reveal a space-time crystallization phase formed by particle-like topological solitons. The robustness against temporal perturbations and spatiotemporal dislocations shows the stability and rigidity of the studied space-time crystals, which relates to their locally topological nature and many-body interactions between emergent spontaneously-twisted, particle-like solitonic building blocks. Their potential technological utility includes optical devices, photonic space-time crystal generators, telecommunications, and anti-counterfeiting designs, among others. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_16972 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Space-time crystals from particle-like topological solitons Zhao, Hanqing Smalyukh, Ivan I. Soft Condensed Matter Time crystals are unexpected states of matter that spontaneously break time translation symmetry either in a discrete or continuous manner. However, spatially-mesoscale space-time crystals that break both the space and time symmetries have not been reported. Here we report a continuous space-time crystal in a nematic liquid crystal driven by ambient-power, constant-intensity unstructured light. Our numerically constructed 4-dimensional configurations exhibit good agreement with these experimental findings. While meeting the established criteria to identify time-crystalline order, both experiments and computer simulations reveal a space-time crystallization phase formed by particle-like topological solitons. The robustness against temporal perturbations and spatiotemporal dislocations shows the stability and rigidity of the studied space-time crystals, which relates to their locally topological nature and many-body interactions between emergent spontaneously-twisted, particle-like solitonic building blocks. Their potential technological utility includes optical devices, photonic space-time crystal generators, telecommunications, and anti-counterfeiting designs, among others. |
| title | Space-time crystals from particle-like topological solitons |
| topic | Soft Condensed Matter |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.16972 |