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Researchers from Microsoft have announced the creation of the first “topological qubits” in a device that stores information in an exotic state of matter, in what can be an important breakthrough for Quantum Computing.
At the same time, the researchers also published a paper in nature and a “route map” for further work. The design of the Majorana 1 -processor should fit a maximum of one million qubits, which may be sufficient to achieve many important goals of quantum computing – such as cracking cryptographic codes and the design of new medicines and materials faster.
As Microsoft's Claims Pan Out, the company may have a leap for a leap, such as IBM and Google, who currently seem to lead the race to build a quantum computer.
However, the peer-reviewed natural paper shows only a part of what the researchers have claimed, and the route map still contains many obstacles that must be overcome. Although Microsoft's press release shows that the Hardware of Quantum computing should be, we do not have an independent confirmation of what it can do. Nevertheless, Microsoft's news is promising.
In the meantime you probably have some questions. What is a topological quubit? What is a quubit by the way? And why do people want quantum computers in the first place?
Quantum bits are difficult to build
Quantum computers were first conceived in the 1980s. Where a normal computer stores information in bits, a quantum computer stores information in quantumbits or quubits.
An ordinary bit can have a value of 0 or 1, but a quantum bit (thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics, which rule very small particles) can have a combination of both. If you simply imagine a bit like an arrow that can point, or down, an Qubit is an arrow that can point in any direction (or what is called a “super position” from up and down).
This means that a quantum computer would be much faster than a normal computer for certain types of calculations – in particular some to do with unbridled codes and simulating natural systems.
So far, so good. But it appears that building real quubits and getting information in and out is extremely difficult, because interactions with the outside world can destroy the delicate quantum states inside.
Researchers have tried many different technologies to make qubits, with the help of things that are trapped in electric fields or vertebrae of the current swirls in super conductors.
Small threads and exotic particles
Microsoft has chosen a very different approach to build its 'topological qubits'. They have used what is called Majorana particles, for the first time theoretized in 1937 by the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana.
Majoranas are not naturally occurring particles such as electrons or protons. Instead, they only exist in a rare type of material called a topological super guide (which requires advanced material design and must be cooled to extremely low temperatures).
