For the first time ever, scientists have witnessed the interaction of a new phase of matter known as “time crystals”.

The discovery, published in Nature Materials, may lead to applications in quantum information processing because time crystals automatically remain intact—coherent—in varying conditions. Protecting coherence is the main difficulty hindering the development of powerful quantum computers.

Dr. Samuli Autti, lead author from Lancaster University, said: “Controlling the interaction of two time crystals is a major achievement. Before this, nobody had observed two time crystals in the same system, let alone seen them interact.