{"id":13645,"date":"2025-02-27T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=13645"},"modified":"2025-02-20T10:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T10:04:07","slug":"microsoft-quantum-breakthrough-quantum-physicist-explains-february-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/microsoft-quantum-breakthrough-quantum-physicist-explains-february-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft just claimed a quantum breakthrough. A quantum physicist explains what it means"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Microsoft says the Majorana 1 processor is a \u2018transformative leap toward practical quantum computing\u2019.\n Microsoft<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n Stephan Rachel<\/a>, The University of Melbourne<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Researchers at Microsoft have announced<\/a> the creation of the first \u201ctopological qubits\u201d in a device that stores information in an exotic state of matter, in what may be a significant breakthrough for quantum computing.<\/p>\n\n

At the same time, the researchers also published a paper in Nature<\/a> and a \u201croadmap<\/a>\u201d for further work. The design of the Majorana 1 processor is supposed to fit up to a million qubits, which may be enough to realise many significant goals of quantum computing \u2013 such as cracking cryptographic codes and designing new drugs and materials faster.<\/p>\n\n

If Microsoft\u2019s claims pan out, the company may have leapfrogged competitors such as IBM and Google, who currently appear to be leading the race<\/a> to build a quantum computer.<\/p>\n\n

However, the peer-reviewed Nature paper only shows part of what the researchers have claimed, and the roadmap still includes many hurdles to be overcome. While the Microsoft press release shows off something that is supposed to be quantum computing hardware, we don\u2019t have any independent confirmation of what it can do. Nevertheless, the news from Microsoft is very promising.<\/p>\n\n

By now you probably have some questions. What\u2019s a topological qubit? What\u2019s a qubit at all, for that matter? And why do people want quantum computers in the first place?<\/p>\n\n

Quantum bits are hard to build<\/h2>\n\n

Quantum computers were first dreamed up in the 1980s. Where an ordinary computer stores information in bits, a quantum computer stores information in quantum bits \u2013 or qubits.<\/p>\n\n

An ordinary bit can have a value of 0 or 1, but a quantum bit (thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics, which govern very small particles) can have a combination of both. If you imagine an ordinary bit as an arrow that can point either up or down, a qubit is an arrow that can point in any direction (or what is called a \u201csuperposition\u201d of up and down).<\/p>\n\n

This means a quantum computer would be much faster than an ordinary computer for certain kinds of calculations \u2013 particularly some to do with unpicking codes and simulating natural systems.<\/p>\n\n

So far, so good. But it turns out that building real qubits and getting information in and out of them is extremely difficult, because interactions with the outside world can destroy the delicate quantum states inside.<\/p>\n\n

Researchers have tried a lot of different technologies to make qubits, using things like atoms trapped in electric fields or eddies of current swirling in superconductors.<\/p>\n\n

Tiny wires and exotic particles<\/h2>\n\n

Microsoft has taken a very different approach to build its \u201ctopological qubits\u201d. They have used what are called Majorana particles, first theorised in 1937 by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana.<\/p>\n\n

Majoranas are not naturally occurring particles like electrons or protons. Instead, they only exist inside a rare kind of material called a topological superconductor (which requires advanced material design and must be cooled down to extremely low temperatures). <\/p>\n\n

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