Metamaterial model of a time crystal

Abstract

Propagation of monochromatic extraordinary light in a hyperbolic metamaterial is identical to propagation of massive particles in a three dimensional effective Minkowski spacetime, in which the role of a timelike variable is played by one of the spatial coordinates. We demonstrate that this analogy may be used to build a metamaterial model of a time crystal, which has been recently suggested by Wilczek and Shapere. It is interesting to note that the effective single-particle energy spectrum in such a model does not contain a static ground state, thus providing a loophole in the proof of time crystal non-existence by P. Bruno.