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MSFT demonstrates formerly elusive physics needed to build scalable qubits

news.microsoft.com

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Re: MSFT demonstrates formerly elusive physics needed to build scalable qubits

#2

Post by itcrowd »

Simultaneously, prof. Kouwenhoven of Delft's Microsoft lab has resigned / left Microsoft (source only in Dutch). He was leading the Dutch effort into Majora particles and his lab was involved in a scandal involving data manipulation, tunnel vision and wishful thinking that led to the now-false claim of the first Majoranas being observed.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/leo-kouwenhoven-nederla...

Re: MSFT demonstrates formerly elusive physics needed to build scalable qubits

#3

Post by itchyjunk »

I felt like my understanding about what has happened didn't change before and after this article. I admit I skimmed through it and I didn't follow all the links but what I got out of this is that we were excited about this for a long time and wasn't sure if it was possible but now knows its possible. Something about topological qbits (which I don't think the article cares to directly define and yes i am to blame for not following the links). I just think a shorter article that gave a few definition and compared and contrasted the pros and cons would have helped me more as a layman. But maybe this is aimed at potential customers who get more out of the article than I do.

Re: MSFT demonstrates formerly elusive physics needed to build scalable qubits

#4

Post by thesz »

itchyjunk wrote: post #3

I felt like my understanding about what has happened didn't change before and after this article. I admit I skimmed through it and I didn't follow all the links but what I got out of this is that we were excited about this for a long time and wasn't sure if it was possible but now knows its possible. Something about topological qbits (which I don't think the article cares to directly define and yes i am to blame for…

Here's explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_quantum_computer#E...

It looks like "topological qubits" that are used in MSFT breakthrough is a sort of "surface-spread" qubits, because they are two dimensional structures. They are then "braided" instead of "entangled" to specify a problem to solve.

What is interesting here is that error correction for temperature fluctuations amounts to give these braids wider separation (in actual space). Which, on one hand, looks like simplification of the solution, but, on the other hand, still requires more space just like additional qubits in regular quantum computer.

Re: MSFT demonstrates formerly elusive physics needed to build scalable qubits

#6

Post by gaze »

whoomp12342 wrote: post #5

cue: article to tell me how qubits represent both 0 and 1 and not tell me anything else about how quantum computing works

Topological quantum computers don’t really represent 0 and 1 even like a standard gate based quantum computer or classical computer does. You have a collection of anyons that you move around each other in a way that encodes the computation (see: T-junction). Then you test to see which anyons, when combined, will go away/annihilate. This encodes the result.

Re: MSFT demonstrates formerly elusive physics needed to build scalable qubits

#7

Post by wrycoder »

itchyjunk wrote: post #3

I felt like my understanding about what has happened didn't change before and after this article. I admit I skimmed through it and I didn't follow all the links but what I got out of this is that we were excited about this for a long time and wasn't sure if it was possible but now knows its possible. Something about topological qbits (which I don't think the article cares to directly define and yes i am to blame for…

Yes, that was a whole pile of marketing-engineering fluff that never made an attempt to explain what they had accomplished. The links in the article don't help either. They did hit climate change, though.

They stated that the qubits they are working with are topological defects similar to knots. OK, but defects in the topology of what? Spacetime? The Maxwell potential? Hilbert phase space?

How many topological qubits are needed to produce a logical qubit?

Then they mentioned nanowires connecting the topological qubits. Are those just tiny wires, or is there a quantum phenomenon associated with them? How is the readout done? I assume it's destructive?

As an aside, with all the subtle research being done on qubits and entanglement, I would have expected some clarity in the fundamental interpretation of QM by now (Copenhagen, Manyworlds, Bohmian), but I haven't heard of anything new for awhile.

Re: MSFT demonstrates formerly elusive physics needed to build scalable qubits

#8

Post by sp332 »

itchyjunk wrote: post #3

I felt like my understanding about what has happened didn't change before and after this article. I admit I skimmed through it and I didn't follow all the links but what I got out of this is that we were excited about this for a long time and wasn't sure if it was possible but now knows its possible. Something about topological qbits (which I don't think the article cares to directly define and yes i am to blame for…

This article from Ars Technica describes the topology and the quantum effect they're going for. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/03/microsoft-announces-...
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