Exactly. The actual interesting thing about this crystal is that the atoms will spontaneously start spinning as you remove energy from the system. Ie, in the g

Exactly. The actual interesting thing about this crystal is that the atoms will spontaneously start spinning as you remove energy from the system. Ie, in the ground state (the lowest energy state) the atoms are in motion. This is in contrast to all the physical systems we are familiar with where the ground state is motionless. The reason it is called a 'time crystal' is that the ground state 'breaks symmetry' in time in the same way that a regular crystal 'breaks symmetry' in space - in the sense that if you translate the system in space, you do not usually get back its original state, unlike a gas. And, this symmetry breaking occurs as you cool the system. Crystals self-organize in a periodic grid as you cool them from the liquid state, just as this time crystal will set itself in periodic motion as you cool it. One consequence of the symmetry breaking is that the atoms will have to move either clockwise, or counterclockwise, and will "randomly" choose one of the two.