Physicists invent flux capacitor, break time-reversal symmetry

In the popular movie franchise "Back to the Future", an eccentric scientist creates a time machine that runs on a flux capacitor.

Now a group of actual physicists from Australia andSwitzerlandhave proposed a device which uses the quantum tunneling of magnetic flux around a capacitor, breaking time-reversal symmetry.

The research, published this week in Physical Review Letters, proposes a new generation of electronic circulators, which are devices that control the direction in which microwave signals move.

It represents a collaboration between two Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence: the Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) and the Centre for Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET).
FLEET Associate Investigator Professor Jared Cole (working at RMIT University) said the proposed device is built from a superconductor, in which electricity can flow without electrical resistance.

Professor Cole added, "We propose two different possible circuits, one of which resembles the iconic three-pointed-star design of the cinematic flux capacitor. (See images.)

"In it, quantum 'tubes' of magnetic flux can move around a central capacitor by a process known as quantum tunneling, where they overcome classically insurmountable obstacles."