VERIA: Scientists have made progress towards correcting the errors that are expected to affect quantum computing.
Quantum computers could offer a massive performance boost over conventional types, but progress toward commercially useful machines has been slow.
Now, scientists from IBM’s Watson Research Center have successfully demonstrated a new method for correcting errors on a quantum circuit.
Details are published in the journal Nature Communications.
The basic units of information in classical computers are called “bits” and are stored as a string of 1s and 0s. But their equivalents in a quantum system – qubits – can be both 1s and 0s at the same time.
In theory, this should give quantum machines much greater computational power than conventional types.
But quantum information is fragile, and errors in calculations carried out in a quantum system can creep in through interference from factors such as heat, electromagnetic radiation and defects in materials.
Controlling or removing such errors is one of the great challenges for harnessing the power of quantum computing.
