Microsoft says it created a new material state in the energy quantum computer

Anyone who sat through the third grade science class knows that there are three main states: solid, liquid and gas.

Microsoft says it has now created a new material state to create a powerful machine called a quantum computer that can accelerate development from batteries to pharmaceuticals to artificial intelligence.

On Wednesday, Microsoft scientists built what is known as the “topological kit,” based on this new phase of existence that can be used to solve mathematical, scientific and technical problems. I stated.

With development, Microsoft has raised interests over what is set to become the next major technology contest, beyond today's race on artificial intelligence. Scientists have been chasing the dream of quantum computers since the 1980s, machines that can exploit the strange and extremely powerful actions of subatomic particles or very cold objects.

Push announced in December that it only took five minutes to complete the calculation that most supercomputers could not finish at 10 loss age, and that was more than the known universe age. It's getting long.

Microsoft's quantum technology could potentially leap the way Google is developing. As part of its research, the company combines the strength of a semiconductor equipped with a classical computer with a superconductor commonly used in quantum computer construction, with multiple topological cubits within a new type of computer chip. I've built it.

When such a chip is cooled to a very low temperature, it works in an unusual and powerful way that Microsoft believes can solve technical, mathematical and scientific problems that classic machines can never do. The technology is not as volatile as other quantum technologies, the company said.

Whether Microsoft has achieved this milestone, and many major scholars have said quantum computers will not be fully realized for decades. However, Microsoft scientists said their methods would help them reach the finish line faster.

“We think this is years away, not decades away,” said Chetan Nayak, a technology fellow at Microsoft who led the team that built the technology.

Microsoft's technology was detailed in a research paper published Wednesday in Science Journal Nature, adding new impulses to races that can reconstruct the technology landscape. In addition to accelerating advancements in many technical and scientific fields, quantum computers can be strong enough to break encryption that protects national secrets.

Progress is set to have geopolitical implications. The Chinese government says it is investing $15.2 billion in the technology, despite the US exploring quantum computing primarily through companies such as Microsoft and startups. The European Union has committed $7.2 billion.

Quantum computing, based on decades of research in a type of physics called quantum mechanics, remains an experimental technique. However, after recent advances from Microsoft, Google and others, scientists believe the technology will ultimately meet its promise.

“Quantum computing is a thrilling outlook for physics and the world,” says Frank Wiltzek, theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It helps you understand quantum computing and learn how traditional computers work. Smartphones, laptops, or desktop PCs rely on small chips made from semiconductors. This is a material that leads to electricity in some parts, not all. These chips store and process numbers, add them, and multiply them. They perform these calculations by manipulating “bits” of information. Each bit holds either a 1 or a 0.

Quantum computers behave differently. Quantum bits, or qubits, rely on the strange behavior of subatomic particles or exotic materials cooled to very low temperatures.

If it's either very small or very cold, a single object can work at the same time like two separate objects. By exploiting that behavior, scientists can build qubits that hold a combination of 1 and 0. This means that two qubits can hold four values ​​at once. And as the number of Qubits increases, quantum computers become exponentially more powerful.

Companies use a variety of techniques to build these machines. Most US, including Google, build Qubits using superconductors, a material that conveys electricity without losing conductive energy. They create these superconductors by cooling the metal to very low temperatures.

Microsoft is betting on the approach others are taking. It combines semiconductors and superconductors. The basic principle, along with the name Topological Qubit, was first proposed in 1997 by Russian-American physicist Alexei Kitaev.

The company began working on this unusual project in the early 2000s, when many researchers didn't think such a technology was possible. This is Microsoft's longest-running research project.

“This is something all three CEOs of this company have a bet,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview. (The company's previous CEOs were founder Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, who ran Microsoft in the early 2000s.

The company has now created a single device that is part of hilnide (a type of semiconductor) and partial aluminum (a cold superconductor). Cooled to about 400 degrees below zero, it shows otherworldly behavior that could enable quantum computers.

Philip Kim, a professor of physics at Harvard University, said that Microsoft's new creation is important because topological qubits can accelerate the development of quantum computers. “If everything goes well, Microsoft's research could be innovative,” he said.

However, Jason Alicea, a professor of theoretical physics at California Institute of Technology, questioned whether the company actually built topological qubits, saying that the behavior of quantum systems is often difficult to prove. .

“A topological kit is possible in principle and people agree that it is a valuable goal,” Dr. Alisea said. “However, you need to make sure your device works in all the magical ways that theory predicts. Otherwise, reality may turn out to be less rosy in quantum computing. Fortunately. That's what Microsoft is now set up to try.”

Microsoft said it is building only eight topological qubits and cannot yet perform calculations that change the nature of computing. However, researchers at the company see this as a step towards building something much stronger.

For now, scientists are developing ways to reduce mistakes, but this technology really makes many errors truly useful.

Last year, Google showed that increasing the number of Qubits could potentially reduce the number of errors exponentially through complex mathematical techniques.

If Microsoft can complete topological Qubits, error correction will be less complicated and more efficient, many scientists said.

A qubit can hold multiple values ​​at the same time, but is burdensome due to inherent problems. When researchers try to read information stored in qubit, it “deco-haring” and collapses into a classic bit that holds only one value: a 1 or a 0.

This means that if someone is reading qubit, they lose their basic powers. Scientists need to overcome essential problems. How do you build a computer if it breaks every time you use it?

Google's Error Fixing is a way to address this issue. Microsoft believes that topological qubits behave differently and are unlikely to collapse when someone reads stored information, so it can solve the problem faster.

“It makes for a really good qubit,” Dr. Nayak said.