Quantum computing has been a developing technology for decades now. Recently, Microsoft announced that it has taken the next step in quantum computing by developing an entirely new form of quantum hardware.
Our everyday computers work by storing information in what is called a ‘bit’ or a single unit of data. This can be thought of as the 1s and 0s that make up all of our data. Currently, bits require transistors, which take the state of either a 1 or 0, depending on whether they are on or off.
Quantum computers, on the other hand, use what is called a qubit (for quantum bit). This allows information to be contained in either a 0 or 1 state or a superposition of both of those states. Researchers have shown that while n classical computer bits can store n binary digits, n qubits can store 2n digits. This provides a massive advantage in computing power when quantum computers are compared to classical ones. This speedup is known as the ‘quantum advantage.’
There is one problem: creating qubits in real life is harder than making a transistor. There are several different types of hardware that allow researchers to build qubits in real life. A popular example is a trapped ion quantum computer, which traps an atom in an electric field, manipulating that atom to create qubits. Other groups are looking into photonic quantum computing, which manipulates light into qubits, as well as superconducting qubits, which are made using supercooled materials with no electric resistivity. This is the method used in IBM’s most recent quantum processor, Condor, which has 1,121 superconducting qubits, and they plan to continue past this.
What Microsoft has claimed to have done is improve on a whole new type of hardware: topological qubits. It involves creating an entirely new state of matter called a ‘topological phase. Their design required them to make superconducting nanowires with a quasiparticle known as a Majorana Zero Mode (MZM) at the end (hence the name Majorana 1). This particle is key to making the qubit, and while they exist in theory, proving they are present in experiments is difficult.
Majorana 1 beats out the competitors by being potentially more scalable than other hardware options. This means that, in theory, it is easier to create more and more qubits, allowing more gates to be made and more computations to be done. Microsoft has the goal to create a single chip that can fit a million qubits in the palm of your hand.
Despite this, some physicists are skeptical about the possibility of topological qubits as described by Microsoft. Some have criticized how quickly the company chose to release the results, and want further data to confirm first. Furthermore, a Microsoft funded team had claimed to have discovered Majorana particles in 2021, but the paper was later retracted for incorrect analysis.
Even with skepticism, researchers hope to use quantum computing in the future to perform huge computational tasks in a short amount of time, possible by the ‘quantum advantage’. This could include risk analysis and optimization in the financial world, as well as simulating how chemicals interact, which could allow chemists to discover new drugs or simulate complex biological structures, both of which are applications to look for as research continues in this field.
