Quantum computers, which operate leveraging quantum mechanics effects, could soon outperform traditional computers in some advanced optimization and simulation tasks. Most quantum computing systems developed so far store and process information using qubits (quantum units of information that can exist in a superposition of two states).

In recent years, however, some physicists and engineers have been trying to develop quantum computers based on qudits, multi-level units of quantum information that can hold more than two states.

Qudit-based quantum systems could store more information and perform computations more efficiently than qubit-based systems, yet they are also more prone to decoherence.