What would the world look like with a computer that could accurately model the laws of nature? That’s the promise of quantum computing.
Now at the apex of one of the longest running research projects at Microsoft, the Redmond team has been able to take a subatomic particle that has only been theorized, and not only observe it, but control it. The “quantum leap” creates an entirely new material and a new architecture for quantum computing — one that can scale to millions of qubits on a single chip.
“This is not purely a work of science but a work of science and art. It promises to revolutionize fields such as medicine, material science, and our understanding of the natural world,” relates Chetan Nayak, Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President of Quantum Hardware at Microsoft.
Say ‘Hello ‘ to Majorana 1 and Topological Qubits
The reason quantum computing has been so slow to progress is that the industry has been struggling with problems making qubits reliable and resistant to noise. Progress has been incremental. The challenge is that qubits are actually extremely fragile in general. So you need underlying qubits that are really stable.
Enter the Majorana Particle
Microsoft esearchers have developed a very specific, very useful quasi particle they have named the Majorana particle. A year ago, they were able to observe it for the first time. This year, they are able to control it and use its unique properties to build a Topoconductor, a new type of semiconductor that also operates as a Superconductor.
There are 7 states of matter,” writes NASA columnist Ethan Seigel. “A topoconductor isn’t one of them!”
When you were young, you probably learned about the three states of matter that are most common to our experience: solid, liquid, and gas. All of these occur with regularity here on Earth’s surface: rocks and ices are solids, water and many oils are liquids, while the atmosphere that we breathe is a gas. However, these three common states of matter are all based on neutral atoms; restrictions that the Universe is not bound by.
If you bombard any atom with enough energy, you’ll kick the electrons off of it, creating an ionized plasma: the fourth state of matter. Turn up the energy high enough, and even protons and neutrons will disintegrate, forming a quark-gluon plasma: arguably the fifth state of matter.
Can there be other, additional states of matter? There sure can!
Topoconductors,” or topological superconductors, exhibit quantum phenomena at macroscopic scales, leading to behaviors not seen in conventional materials. They can conduct electricity differently from regular materials, possibly without losing energy.
and they can create new behaviors and effects that we don’t see in ordinary states of matter. Majorana’s theory, proposed by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana in the 1930s, suggests that certain particles can be their own antiparticles.
With this material, Microsoft can build a whole new foundational architecture for quantum computers. In layman’s terms, Majorana’s theory shows that mathematically it’s possible to have a particle that is its own anti-particle. That means you can take two of these particles and bring them together. Sometimes it results in a zero state, and sometimes it’s an electron, which is the one state.
Whereas in a regular chip, the computation is done using electrons, the Majoranas are an entirely new particle that is half electron allowing the chip to store over a million qubits. The topological qubit is the right size, the right speed, and the right type of controllability. And all of that together means that it has an ability to scale like no other.Imagine a world where a scientist computes the material that they want, and they compute it to the accuracy that it’s first time right. So when you walk into a lab, you don’t need to experiment anymore. Imagine a battery that you charge at once and you never have to worry about. You don’t have to worry about discharging.
Photo by John Brecher for Microsoft.
What can you do with a million qubits?
It will give us the tool to creating new chemicals, new drugs, new enzymes for food production. It will provide a new level of speed and capacity to artificial intelligence. Civilization has always characterized the ages of mankind with t he names of materials. We’ve talked about the stone age. We’ve talked about the bronze age and the iron age. The steel age and the silicon age have defined our culture, and defined our progress. Thus, what could be more powerful than having a machine that can let you radically change the way we work with materials?
What makes this approach potentially transformative is that it can address the primary challenge facing quantum computing: error rates. While companies like IBM, Google, and others focus on scaling up the number of physical qubits and implementing complex error correction schemes, Microsoft is betting on creating higher-quality qubits from the start.
If successful, Microsoft’s approach would require far fewer physical qubits to achieve fault-tolerant quantum computing, potentially allowing them to leapfrog competitors who are using more conventional approaches.
After 17 years, Microsoft is showcasing results that are not just incredible, they are real. They are real because they will fundamentally redefine how the next stage of the quantum journey takes place.
A New State of Matter
Topological qubits are considered a new state of matter due to their unique properties that arise from topological phases, which are distinct from conventional states of matter like solids, liquids, and gases.
The stability and robustness they offer is the key to achieving the stability qubits require to operate. The properties of topologically ordered states remain unchanged under continuous deformations, such as stretching or bending, without tearing. In topologically ordered states, particles known as anyons can exist. Anyons are predicted to be robust against local disturbances, making them suitable for fault-tolerant quantum computing.
In essence, topological qubits represent a new state of matter due to their unique topological order, the presence of anyons, non-local information encoding, and emergent phenomena that distinguish them from the traditional phases of matter.
It’s Cold in Redmond
Many qubit technologies, including superconducting qubits and topological qubits, require extremely low temperatures (often below 20 millikelvins) to minimize thermal noise and maintain coherence. Microsoft uses advanced cryostats and dilution refrigerators to achieve these low temperatures, providing the stable conditions needed for experiments.
The sub-zero labs are also designed to shield qubits from electromagnetic interference and vibrations, which can disrupt quantum states. This isolation is critical for achieving reliable measurements and operations.
Microsoft controlled environments allow researchers to explore the properties of materials like topological insulators and to investigate the behavior of anyons and Majorana modes under different conditions.
Microsoft’s facilities are equipped to create and maintain sub-zero environments necessary for testing topological qubits and other quantum systems. These environments are essential many reasons.
Overall, Microsoft’s investment in cryogenic facilities supports their ambitious goals in quantum computing, enabling them to explore and test new qubit technologies effectively. [24×7]
Larry Sivitz is the managing editor of Seattle24x7.
