👩‍💻 Google paves the way for practically usable quantum computers

• Google has built a quantum computer that makes fewer errors as it scales up.
• The company has passed an important threshold for error correction in quantum units.
• This paves the way for practically usable quantum computers in the future.

Google's progress in quantum computers

Google has constructed a quantum computer that makes fewer errors as it scales up, disproving previous concerns that larger quantum computers would become unusable due to increasing error frequencies, reports New Scientist.

Quantum computers are more sensitive to errors than regular computers. To handle this problem, Google groups several physical quantum bits (qubits) to function as a single "logical" qubit. This enables error control without disturbing the sensitive quantum state.

In experiments with processors of 72 and 105 qubits, Google managed to pass an important threshold for error correction. In one test, the logical qubit preserved the quantum state more than twice as long as any of the individual physical qubits it consisted of. The researchers reported an error rate of only 0.143 percent per cycle in the machine.

Future challenges

Despite the progress, challenges remain. To achieve an error level of only one error per million operations would require 1457 physical qubits for each logical qubit. This is more than what exists in even the largest quantum computers today.

Google is now competing against other companies to scale up their quantum computers. An important question is whether Google's chosen architecture with superconducting qubits will prove to be the right way forward. Competitors using an alternative method based on trapped ions have previously demonstrated error correction, but only for a dozen or so physical qubits.

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