In a paper released in the journal Nature on May 11, scientists at Google Quantum AI announced that they had actually used one of their superconducting quantum processors to observe the strange behavior of non-Abelian anyons for the very first time ever. These brand-new outcomes open a new course towards topological quantum calculation, in which operations are attained by winding non-Abelian anyons around each other like strings in a braid.
Google Quantum AI staff member and first author of the manuscript, Trond I. Andersen states, “Observing the strange habits of non-Abelian anyons for the very first time actually highlights the kind of exciting phenomena we can now access with quantum computer systems.”
Picture youre revealed two identical things and then asked to close your eyes. Open them again, and you see the same two things. How can you determine if they have been swapped? Intuition says that if the items are truly similar, there is no chance to tell.
Quantum mechanics supports this intuition, however only in our familiar three-dimensional world. If the similar items are limited to only relocate a two-dimensional plane, in some cases, our intuition can stop working and quantum mechanics enables something unusual: non-Abelian anyons retain a sort of memory– it is possible to inform when two of them have been exchanged, in spite of being entirely similar.
This “memory” of the non-Abelian anyons can be considered a constant line in space-time: the particles so-called “world-line.” When 2 non-Abelian anyons are exchanged, their world-lines wrap around one another. Wrap them in the ideal way, and the resulting knots and braids form the basic operations of a topological quantum computer.
The group begun by preparing their superconducting qubits in a knotted quantum state that is well represented as a checkerboard– a familiar setup for the Google group, who just recently showed a milestone in quantum error correction using this setup. In the checkerboard plan, associated– however less beneficial– particles called Abelian anyons can emerge.
To realize non-Abelian anyons, the researchers extended and compressed the quantum state of their qubits to transform the checkered pattern into strangely shaped polygons. Particular vertices in these polygons hosted the non-Abelian anyons. Utilizing a procedure developed by Eun-Ah Kim at Cornell University and previous postdoc Yuri Lensky, the team might then move the non-Abelian anyons around by continuing to warp the lattice and moving the locations of the non-Abelian vertices.
In a series of experiments, the researchers at Google observed the habits of these non-Abelian anyons and how they interacted with the more mundane Abelian anyons. Weaving the two types of particles around one another yielded bizarre phenomena– particles inexplicably vanished, came back and shapeshifted from one type to another as they wound around one another and clashed. Most importantly, the group observed the hallmark of non-Abelian anyons: when 2 of them were switched, it caused a quantifiable change in the quantum state of their system– a striking phenomenon that had actually never ever been observed before.
The group showed how braiding of non-Abelian anyons may be utilized in quantum calculations. By intertwining a number of non-Abelian anyons together, they had the ability to produce a well-known quantum knotted state called the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state.
The physics of non-Abelian particles is also at the core of the technique that Microsoft has actually picked for its quantum computing effort. While they are attempting to engineer product systems that inherently host these anyons, the Google team has actually now shown that the same type of physics can be recognized on their superconducting processors.
Last week the quantum computing business Quantinuum released an impressive complementary study that likewise demonstrated non-Abelian braiding, in this case using a trapped-ion quantum processor. Andersen is delighted to see other quantum computing groups observing non-Abelian braiding. He states, “It will be really fascinating to see how non-Abelian anyons are employed in quantum computing in the future, and whether their peculiar habits can hold the key to fault-tolerant topological quantum computing.”
Recommendation: “Non-Abelian braiding of chart vertices in a superconducting processor” by Google Quantum AI and Collaborators, 11 May 2023, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-023-05954-4.
Non-Abelian anyons– the only particles that have actually been forecasted to break this rule– have been sought for their fascinating features and their potential to revolutionize quantum computing by making the operations more robust to noise. In a paper released in the journal Nature on May 11, scientists at Google Quantum AI revealed that they had used one of their superconducting quantum processors to observe the peculiar habits of non-Abelian anyons for the first time ever. Most notably, the group observed the hallmark of non-Abelian anyons: when two of them were swapped, it triggered a measurable modification in the quantum state of their system– a striking phenomenon that had actually never ever been observed before.
Last week the quantum computing company Quantinuum launched an impressive complementary study that likewise demonstrated non-Abelian braiding, in this case using a trapped-ion quantum processor. He says, “It will be extremely intriguing to see how non-Abelian anyons are employed in quantum computing in the future, and whether their peculiar behavior can hold the secret to fault-tolerant topological quantum computing.”
Scientists were able to observe the curious results of intertwining non-Abelian anyons for the first time. Credit: Google Quantum AI
Google Quantum AI has actually observed non-Abelian anyons for the very first time, a development that could reinvent quantum computing by making it more robust to sound and causing topological quantum calculation.
Our intuition tells us that it must be difficult to see whether two identical items have been switched back and forth, and for all particles observed to date, that has held true. Until now.
Non-Abelian anyons– the only particles that have actually been predicted to break this rule– have actually been sought for their fascinating features and their possible to transform quantum computing by making the operations more robust to sound. Microsoft and others have selected this method for their quantum computing effort. After decades of efforts by researchers in the field, observing non-Abelian anyons and their strange habits has actually shown challenging, to say the least.