Wednesday 21 May 2014

Superconducting qubit array points the way to error-free quantum computers

Science Focus

original post »

The five cross-shaped devices are the Xmon variant of the transmon qubit placed in a linear array. Credit: Erik Lucero A fully functional quantum computer is one of the holy grails of physics. Unlike conventional computers, the quantum version uses qubits (quantum bits), which make direct use of the multiple states of quantum phenomena. When realized, a quantum computer will be millions of times more powerful at certain computations than today’s supercomputers. A group of UC Santa Barbara physicists has moved one step closer to making a quantum computer a reality by demonstrating a new level of reliability in a five-qubit array. Their findings appear Thursday in the journal Nature. Quantum computing is anything but simple. It relies on aspects of quantum mechanics such as superposition. This notion holds that any physical object, such as an atom or electron—what quantum computers use to store information—can exist in all of its theoretical states simultaneously. This could take parallel computing to new heights. “Quantum hardware is very, very unreliable compared to classical hardware,” says Austin Fowler, a staff scientist in the physics department, whose theoretical work inspired the experiments of the Martinis Group. “Even the best state-of-the-art hardware is unreliable. Our paper shows

The post Superconducting qubit array points the way to error-free quantum computers has been published on Technology Org.

 
#physics 
 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/5E04N21CaY0/
See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

No comments:

Post a Comment