Observation of a continuous time crystal

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental observation of a continuous time crystal in a dissipative atom-cavity system, demonstrating spontaneous breaking of continuous time translation symmetry through emergent, robust oscillations.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental realization of a continuous time crystal in a dissipative quantum system, expanding the understanding of time crystal phases.

Findings

Observation of a limit cycle phase with emergent oscillations

Spontaneous breaking of continuous time translation symmetry

Robustness of limit cycles against temporal perturbations

Abstract

Time crystals are classified as discrete or continuous depending on whether they spontaneously break discrete or continuous time translation symmetry. While discrete time crystals have been extensively studied in periodically driven systems since their recent discovery, the experimental realization of a continuous time crystal is still pending. Here, we report the observation of a limit cycle phase in a continuously pumped dissipative atom-cavity system, which is characterized by emergent oscillations in the intracavity photon number. We observe that the phase of this oscillation is random for different realizations, and hence this dynamical many-body state breaks continuous time translation symmetry spontaneously. The observed robustness of the limit cycles against temporal perturbations confirms the realization of a continuous time crystal.