Majorana Zero Modes
Researchers at Microsoft announced that they had figured out a way to create a strange kind of particle that could potentially revolutionise quantum computing.
These particles are called Majorana zero modes, whose unique properties could help build quantum computers that are less fragile, and more computationally robust, than they are today.
Majorana zero modes are a mathematical construction that allows electrons to be described theoretically as being composed of two halves.
Majorana zero mode that’s an electron and a hole.
A hole is a point where there could be an electron but isn’t. It effectively has a positive charge.
Benefit to quantum-computing
Majorana zero modes can be used to realise a powerful form of computing called topological quantum-computing.
From a quantum computing perspective, if an electron can be split into two parts then the information it encodes as a qubit will be protected from local perturbations.
In this configuration, physicists have found that even if one of the entities is disturbed, the overall qubit doesn’t decohere, and continues to protect the encoded information.
In principle, if there is no overlap between the two ‘half-particles’, such a qubit can exist forever.
Majorana zero modes can work as qubits and they won’t easily lose the information vested with them.
COMMENTS