A scientist at the University of Birmingham has created a “mini universe” that could help answer one of science’s most fundamental questions: What is time?

In a study published in Physical Review Research, Professor Giovanni Barontini demonstrates that it is possible to track the passage of time without relying on a clock. The research introduces a model in which a form of time emerges naturally from the behavior of the system being studied.

Some physics theories, including the Wheeler–DeWitt equation, suggest that time is not a fundamental property of the universe. Instead, the universe may exist as a single quantum state that does not change, with particles displaying both wave-like and particle-like behavior. In this view, there is no external clock, and the experience of time arises from relationships between different parts of the system.