Three Solid-State Qubits Entangled: Big Step Toward Quantum Error Correction

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2010) — The rules that govern the world of the very small, quantum mechanics, are known for being bizarre. One of the strangest tenets is something called quantum entanglement, in which two or more objects (such as particles of light, called photons) become inextricably linked, so that measuring certain properties of one object reveals information about the other(s), even if they are separated by thousands of miles. Einstein found the consequences of entanglement so unpalatable he famously dubbed it "spooky action at a distance."

Now a team led by Yale researchers has harnessed this counterintuitive aspect of quantum mechanics and achieved the entanglement of three solid-state qubits, or quantum bits, for the first time. Their accomplishment, described in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal Nature, is a first step towards quantum error correction, a crucial aspect of future quantum computing.

"Entanglement between three objects has been demonstrated before with photons and charged particles," said Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics & Applied Physics at Yale and an author of the paper. "But this is the first three-qubit, solid-state device that looks and feels like a conventional microprocessor."

The new result builds on the team's development last year of the world's first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, which they demonstrated was capable of executing simple algorithms using two qubits.


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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100929132533.htm

[j420norcal]

1. I look forward to instantaneous computing N/T