Why IS the Pentagon looking into time crystals? DARPA launches program to study recently-discovered quantum structure – but many of its uses are not ‘open for discussion’

Last year, scientists revealed the discovery of an astounding new form of matter they claimed breaks the symmetry of time.

In time crystals, the atoms follow a repeating pattern in time rather than space, and physicists have dubbed the material one of the first examples of non-equilibrium matter.

But, what exactly what time crystals could be used for has remained somewhat unclear.

The Defense Department’s research branch has now launched a new initiative to study time crystals and their potential applications, in a program called Driven and Nonequilibrium Quantum Systems (DRINQS).