Quantum Computing

Google has announced that it has achieved “quantum supremacy,” the point where a quantum computer successfully performs an operation considered impossible for traditional computers. But rival IBM disagrees that this has been achieved at all.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found a superconducting material naturally stable in two states at once, which is useful for quantum computers.

Practical quantum computers may be another step closer to reality, thanks again to graphene. The bits of information in quantum computers (qubits) can exist in two states at once, and now researchers have managed to record just how long that superposition state can last in a qubit made of graphene.

Having provided access to a quantum processor through the cloud for a year, IBM is revealing a new generation of processors. A 16-qubit processor will increase the processing power available through the cloud, while the second is twice as powerful again and designed for commercial applications.

The next big breakthrough for electronics is likely to be quantum computers, but there are still plenty of hurdles to jump before they become a reality. A team from Aalto University in Finland may have cleared one of those obstacles, developing a “nanorefrigerator” to help cool components down.

Researchers have recently blasted through another quantum quandary, potentially bringing stability to the notoriously unstable world that exists in these computing systems. New Atlas spoke with one of the researchers to get more information about the potentially game-changing work.

Researchers at the University of Sussex claim to have produced a method that removes lasers from quantum logic gates, thereby removing one of the largest stumbling blocks to producing a workable, full-sized quantum computer system

In one more step on the road to a functional quantum computer, researchers at Harvard University and Sandia Ion Beam Laboratory claim to have created the very first "bridge" that could effectively link strings of quantum computers together in a single networked unit.

Chinese scientists claim to have launched the world's first quantum communications satellite with which they intend to experiment with quantum communication and teleportation from space, in the hope of one day producing an entire global network of quantum communication systems.

Current quantum processors were once thought of as only precursors to creating future quantum computers, and too simple to do anything useful on their own. Now researchers have discovered a way to use them to solve very specific tasks much faster than normal computers can today

Through IBM Quantum Experience, the public will be able to experiment with individual quantum bits (qubits), process their own experiments, and run some of their own algorithms directly on IBM's quantum processor.

Scientists have successfully trialled a quantum "data bus" – a system that transfers quantum information from one place to another, which had previously only been theorized. They accomplished this feat with a technique called perfect state transfer.