First Electronic Quantum Processor Created 205
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by
ScuttleMonkey
from the baby-steps dept.
from the baby-steps dept.
ScienceDaily is reporting that the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor has been created by a team led by Yale University researchers. "Working with a group of theoretical physicists led by Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, the team manufactured two artificial atoms, or qubits ('quantum bits'). While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states. These states are akin to the '1' and '0' or 'on' and 'off' states of regular bits employed by conventional computers. Because of the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, however, scientists can effectively place qubits in a 'superposition' of multiple states at the same time, allowing for greater information storage and processing power."
Lab Site & Papers (Score:5, Informative)
Simulating? (Score:3, Informative)
While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states.
Does this sound like they're using real atoms to simulate qubits? Perhaps I'm misinterpretting, but it looks like it's still going to take an exponential amount of resources to "make" each additional qubit.
Direct PDF Link to Original Paper (Score:5, Informative)
(For those with access to Nature through school or work...)
Re:This is the day we've been waiting for people! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Problem Solved (Score:4, Informative)
That has been long since solved with evolutionary genetics.
The egg.
What produced it just happened not to be a chicken. Something close, but not quite.
Re:Does it run Linux? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Article is incorrect. (Score:5, Informative)
they did not manufacture "two artificial atoms, or qubits". They manufactured two clusters of atoms that acted as qubits.
A qubit [wikipedia.org] is not actually a quantum particle. It is a unit of quantum information. Now, do you consider the qubit to be the system or the state?
Re:Most Excellent (Score:1, Informative)
Parent is correct (assuming he was making a Bill and Ted reference).
It would be a time travelling "Police Box" if he'd botched a Doctor Who reference.
Re:Simulating? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The first, really? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes the first. The Dwave guys aren't building quantum computers. Their system lacks entanglement between the qubits, which is essential to running quantum algorithms. They have also been less than forthcoming about the coherence in their system.
Re:Problem Solved (Score:4, Informative)
No, no, you've got it backwards.
A non-chicken laid a chicken egg (i.e. the egg's genes were those of a chicken), from which hatched a chicken.
Re:Bose-einstein condensate? (Score:5, Informative)
They go on to mention that the apparatus was cooled to 13 millikelvin using a helium dilution refrigerator. Now, niobium is superconductive to about 9 kelvin in the pure state (and about 23 kelvin in some alloys), so I would assume the extra effort to make it that cold has more to do with preserving the delicate electronic state of the qubits than with merely chilling the superconductors.