Journal
NATURE
Volume 543, Issue 7644, Pages 221-+Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nature21426
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Funding
- CUA
- NSSEFF
- ARO MURI
- Moore Foundation
- Harvard Society of Fellows
- Princeton Center for Theoretical Science
- Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science
- Kwanjeong Educational Foundation
- Samsung Fellowship
- Purcell Fellowship
- NSF [PHY-1506284, DMR-1308435]
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI [26246001]
- LDRD Program of LBNL under US DOE [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- EU (FP7, Horizons, ERC)
- DFG
- SNF
- Volkswagenstiftung
- BMBF
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [26246001] Funding Source: KAKEN
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Materials Research [1308435] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Physics [1506284] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Physics
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1125846] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Understanding quantum dynamics away from equilibrium is an outstanding challenge in the modern physical sciences. Out-of-equilibrium systems can display a rich variety of phenomena, including self-organized synchronization and dynamical phase transitions(1,2). More recently, advances in the controlled manipulation of isolated many-body systems have enabled detailed studies of non-equilibrium phases in strongly interacting quantum matter(3-6); for example, the interplay between periodic driving, disorder and strong interactions has been predicted to result in exotic 'time-crystalline' phases(7), in which a system exhibits temporal correlations at integer multiples of the fundamental driving period, breaking the discrete time-translational symmetry of the underlying drive(8-12). Here we report the experimental observation of such discrete time-crystalline order in a driven, disordered ensemble of about one million dipolar spin impurities in diamond at room temperature(13-15). We observe long-lived temporal correlations, experimentally identify the phase boundary and find that the temporal order is protected by strong interactions. This order is remarkably stable to perturbations, even in the presence of slow thermalization(16,17). Our work opens the door to exploring dynamical phases of matter and controlling interacting, disordered many-body systems(18-20).
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