

Although measuring quantum states normally dissolves some of their quantumness, the measurements made in quantum error correction are carefully crafted to reveal just enough information to diagnose errors. The way to spot this qubit rot is through measurement. Qubits are much more freewheeling, and they are subject to-quite literally-infinitely more errors. But in that case, there’s really only one type of error that can occur: a 0 can flip to a 1 and vice versa.

There’s a name for this ruthless destruction of all things quantum: This can erode a delicate superposition relatively quickly, and things only get worse the more atoms you add. So although one atom on its own is a pretty ideal quantum-y thing, as soon as you put it next to other atoms (like you would in a quantum computer), the whole mess starts jostling around. This heat, mild as it may be, makes quantumness melt away. Why not? Because our bodies, and basically everything we encounter, are sitting at the relative inferno that we call room temperature. You can’t really see a quantum superposition in action or grab hold of quantum entanglement. Our everyday experiences demonstrate this inherent fragility of quantum objects. A tiny bit of light here, a sporadic vibration there-pretty much anything is enough to disrupt the inner workings of a quantum computer. The problems get compounded when scientists try to sprinkle in superposition and entanglement, both of which are necessary for quantum computing. Unfortunately, they are kind of fussy, like pets that insist on ignoring your commands. Qubits (a mashup of quantum and bits), store and process information inside of a quantum computer. All of the quantum pieces they're made of are-how can we put this delicately?-extraordinarily fragile. Small prototypes already exist, but they all have a problem: They are really finicky.
#Quantum error correction comprementary full
Quantum computers are special purpose machines full of promise and, these days, quite a bit of hype. Back to all entries Quantum Error Correction Quantum computers need some help when things go wrong.
