Typical superconducting quantum circuits, such as qubits—basic processing units of a quantum computer, must be operated at very low temperatures, of a few 10s of millikelvin, or hundredths of a degree from absolute zero temperature. These temperatures are today easily accessible in modern refrigerators. However, the intrinsic temperature of devices turns out to be much higher because the materials required to make good qubit circuits are by their nature very poor thermal conductors. This thermalization problem becomes more and more acute as the scale and complexity of circuits grow.

Much like water (or liquid nitrogen) cooling is sometimes used to effectively cool down high-performance digital computers, a quantum computer could benefit from similar liquid cooling. But at the very low temperatures that quantum circuits operate, most liquids will have turned into ice. Only two isotopes of Helium, Helium-3 and Helium-4, remain in the liquid form at millikelvin temperatures.

In recent work published in Nature Communications, researchers from the National Physical Laboratory, Royal Holloway University of London, Chalmers University of Technology and Google developed new technology to cool down a quantum circuit to less than a thousand of a degree above absolute zero, almost 100 times lower temperature than achieved before. This was made possible by immersing the circuit in liquid ³ He, chosen for its superior thermal properties.

Twistronics could illuminate a path to superconductivity, revolutionize electronic devices, or perhaps hasten the arrival of quantum computing.

IBM in collaboration with UC Berkeley researchers announced a recent breakthrough experiment which indicates that quantum computers will soon surpass classical computers in practical tasks.

Now, the company is taking another major step that has never been done before by it. The company is making the 127-qubit quantum computer publicly available over IBM Cloud.

The IBM researchers measured the noise in each qubit and extrapolated their measurements to predict the system’s behaviour without noise. They successfully ran calculations involving all 127 qubits of the Eagle processor, marking the largest reported experiment of its kind.

The Austrian scientist, a pioneer of quantum teleportation, reflects on God, the nature of things and the future of computing.

But before quantum physics revolutionizes computing, Intel and rivals will have to learn how to make vastly more powerful machines.

Dan this made me think of you.

‘Benchmark’ experiment suggests quantum computers could have useful real-world applications within two years.