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Scientists have used the renowned " Schrödinger ’s cat " thought experiment to come up with a way to dispatch errors from futurequantum estimator .
The newfangled method encodes quantum selective information onto an antimony atom , which has eight potential state that enable data to be more safely store than in a standard two - Department of State qubit , or quantum flake .
An artist’s illustration of Schrödinger’s Cat.
The find is a life-sustaining step inmaking errors within quantum systems less likely to take place , and , when they do , make them more easily detected and corrected — a fundamental barrier to the development ofquantum computers . The researchers print their findings Wednesday ( Jan.14 ) in the journalNature Physics .
First devised by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1925 , his thought process experiment evocatively describes theweird rules of the quantum worldby imagine a cat rank inside an opaque box with a poison vial which has an opening mechanics controlled by radioactive decay — a completely random quantum process .
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Until the box is give and the cat-o'-nine-tails is observed , Schrödinger argued , the rule of quantum grease monkey imply that the inauspicious feline will exist in a principle of superposition of states , at the same time deadened and active .
In the case ofa qubit , quantum information relating to the 0 or 1 states of a classical computer can be encoded on the " ' spin up " ' and " ' whirl down " ' states of an atom — spin being the intrinsic angular momentum of a profound subatomic particle .
But if noise within a quantum estimator causes this spin to short exchange ( as often happens ) , the quantum state would be drop off , producing an error and destroying the information within .
To get around this problem , the researchers behind the fresh study engraft an antimony atom , which has eight different whirl directions , inside a siliconquantum chip . The six additional whirl directions of the atomic number 51 atom ( obtain by the particle ’s composite nature that add multiple individual spins ) means that , unlike in a two spin - State Department system , a single error is n’t enough to destroy the encoded selective information .
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" As the adage croak , a quat has nine life . One little lettuce is not enough to kill it , " co - authorBenjamin Wilhelm , a doctoral student in electrical engine room and telecommunications at the University of New South Wales ( UNSW ) in Australia , say in a statement . " Our metaphoric ' cat ' has seven aliveness : it would take seven consecutive errors to turn the ' 0 ' into a ' 1 ' ! "
With this system in place , the researchers say they will now turn to demonstrate a method for observe and set computer error in their chip , a feat that is considered a " Holy Grail " within the quantum computing field .
" If an wrongdoing occurs , we detect it directly away , and we can correct it before further errors accumulate . To proceed the ' Schrödinger cat ' metaphor , it ’s as if we see our CT come home with a big scratch on his face , " co - authorAndrea Morello , a professor of electric technology and quantum physics at UNSW , tell in the program line . " He ’s far from dead , but we sleep with that he got into a fight ; we can go and discover who caused the fight , before it happens again and our computed tomography puzzle further injuries . "
