Schrödinger’s cat has learned to correct the mistakes of the quantum komputerowych Wolf | 14.08.2020
Physics at Yale University (Yale University) have developed “error-correcting quantum cat” – a new device that combines
the concept of superposition of schrödinger’s cat (physical system that exists in two States simultaneously) with the ability to correct complex errors in quantum computations. The work was published in the journal Nature.
At Yale, called the research a breakthrough that will seriously improve quantum computers, increasing their accuracy.
Quantum computers in an industrial environment has the potential to radically transform many industries, from pharmaceuticals to financial services, allowing you to perform calculations several orders of magnitude
faster than any modern supercomputer. Yale University is considered one of the leaders in the field of quantum physics, more than 20 years doing research in this area, including
the issues of error and accuracy calculations.
In a traditional computer, information is encoded as 0 or 1. Errors that occur during calculations – it “flips bits”, when encoded as a zero bit is randomly switching on
unit or Vice versa. This is corrected through redundancy: uses three physical bits of information to ensure effective, accurate bit.
Quantum bits of information – qubits – are vulnerable to coups themselves bits and “coups phase”, in which the qubit randomly switches between the quantum superpositions (when
two opposite States exist simultaneously). Still, the developers of quantum computers tried to fix such kind of errors the traditional way, that is, adding all the more
redundancy. She, in turn, requires a large number of physical qubits to confirm the truthfulness of each of the effective qubit.
Yale tried to go the other way – by applying the principle Shredingera cat. This way of describing quantum superposition is that a cat placed in a sealed box with a radioactive
a source and a poison that will work, if the atom of a radioactive substance will disintegrate. Until then, until someone opens the box, the cat, under the principle of quantum superposition, simultaneously and remains
the living and the dead. The opening of the box leads to the fact that the cat changes its quantum state on a regular, appearing either dead or on it.
Yale scientists tried to apply the same approach to use the smart method of encoding information in a single physical system to directly suppress one type of error. Unlike
error prevention through the use of many physical qubits, used to verify a single effective qubit, one “cat’s qubit” can itself prevent the phase shift.
It encodes the effective qubit in a superposition of two States in the same electronic circuit – in this case, a superconducting microwave resonator, the oscillations of which correspond to the two States
“cat of a qubit”.
The most important thing that the researchers were able to achieve the theoretically predicted results is quite simple way – by feeding the signals of a microwave band to the device, which is not much
more complicated than a typical superconducting qubit. Experts of Yale, said that they created a “cat qubit” can be translated from any state of superposition in any other team. In addition, was
a new method for reading information encoded in the qubit.
“This makes the system that we have developed a versatile new element, which we hope will find its application in many aspects of quantum computing with superconducting circuits”, –
said Yale University Professor Michael Devoret (Michel Devoret).
It should be noted that the study was not funded by anyone, and the U.S. Department of defense, Research Department of the U.S. army and the National science Foundation.
A quantum computer
