Superconducting Qubits Show Time-Crystalline Order for 120 Cycles

Researchers at Zhejiang University, Lanzhou University, University of Houston, and Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, have demonstrated a remarkably stable form of time-crystalline order in a 72-qubit superconducting processor, maintaining the exotic quantum state for 120 cycles. This mechanism divides the Fock-space network into linearly many sparse sub-networks, thereby prolonging the thermalization timescale even for initial states at high energy densities. The work reveals that approximately conserved domain wall numbers underpin this stability, offering a pathway to harness highly entangled states for quantum applications and breaking ergodicity in these systems.…