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This article about time crystals just appeared on the PRL website.

Viewpoint: Crystals of Time (http://physics.aps.org/articles/v5/116)

The authors (including famous Frank Wilczek) claim that some systems in their ground state are time periodic and this is related to some spontaneous breaking of some "time" symmetry. From my point of view such systems were known before this claim (persistent currents, bright solitons among them)...So I want to know what is special about these new "crystals of time"?

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    $\begingroup$ The key difference is that in, e.g. persistent currents, the translational time symmetry is not broken, only time reversal symmetry. I hope we will get an insightful answer about the consequences that could be far reaching. I would not accuse the authors of scientific misconduct, "fake", without evidence. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Oct 17, 2012 at 11:05
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    $\begingroup$ This was flagged as non-constructive, and originally it was, but I think it was just an edit away from being okay, so I'm editing rather than closing it. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Oct 17, 2012 at 17:48

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A flaw in Wilczek's argument has been pointed out in PRL 110, 118901 (2013). In short, the rotating soliton exhibited by Wilczek is not the correct ground state of the system. The true ground state can be shown to be stationary, irrespective of the flux. Impossibility of a quantum system with time-crystal-like ground-state has been further addressed in PRL 111, 040702 (2013), EPL 103, 57008 (20013), and arXiv:1410.2143.

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