Scientists from Sweden and Finland have discovered a way to use magnetism to protect fragile qubits, potentially solving quantum computing’s greatest weakness.
By engineering a new exotic material that naturally supports stable quantum states, they’ve created a pathway toward resilient, disturbance-resistant quantum computers. This advance, combined with a computational tool to identify more such materials, could accelerate the race to practical quantum computing.
The Strange Rules of the Quantum World
At the smallest scales of nature, the rules of physics change dramatically from what we see in everyday life. Instead of behaving like solid objects, particles follow the strange principles of quantum mechanics. They can exist in more than one state at the same time and even affect each other in ways that seem impossible in classical physics. These unusual effects are the foundation of quantum computing, a field with the potential to solve problems that even the fastest supercomputers cannot handle.
Yet before quantum computing can deliver on that promise, scientists face a critical obstacle. The qubits, or quantum bits, that store and process information are highly fragile. A small shift in temperature, a tiny magnetic fluctuation, or even faint vibrations can disrupt them, causing the loss of their quantum state and making reliable calculations impossible.
To address this weakness, researchers have turned their attention to special materials that can shield qubits from such disturbances through their underlying structure, known as topology. When a quantum state is preserved because of the material’s topology, it is referred to as a topological excitation. These states are naturally much more resistant to noise, but identifying materials that can support them has proven extremely difficult.
Newly Developed Material Protects Against Disturbances
A research team from Chalmers University of Technology, Aalto University, and the University of Helsinki has now created a quantum material for qubits that demonstrates strong topological excitations. This represents a major advance toward practical topological quantum computing by embedding stability directly into the design of the material itself.
“This is a completely new type of exotic quantum material that can maintain its quantum properties when exposed to external disturbances. It can contribute to the development of quantum computers robust enough to tackle quantum calculations in practice,” says Guangze Chen, postdoctoral researcher in applied quantum physics at Chalmers and lead author of the study published in Physical Review Letters.
‘Exotic quantum materials’ is an umbrella term for several novel classes of solids with extreme quantum properties. The search for such materials, with special resilient properties, has been a long-standing challenge.
Magnetism Is the Key in the New Strategy
Traditionally, researchers have followed a well-established ‘recipe’ based on spin-orbit coupling, a quantum interaction that links the electron’s spin to its orbital movement around the atomic nucleus to create topological excitations. However, this ‘ingredient’ is relatively rare, and the method can therefore only be used on a limited number of materials.
In the study, the research team presents a completely new method that uses magnetism – a much more common and accessible ingredient – to achieve the same effect. By harnessing magnetic interactions, the researchers were able to engineer the robust topological excitations required for topological quantum computing.
“The advantage of our method is that magnetism exists naturally in many materials. You can compare it to baking with everyday ingredients rather than using rare spices,” explains Guangze Chen. “This means that we can now search for topological properties in a much broader spectrum of materials, including those that have previously been overlooked.”
Paving the Way for Next-Generation Quantum Computer Platforms
To accelerate the discovery of new materials with useful topological properties, the research team has also developed a new computational tool. The tool can directly calculate how strongly a material exhibits topological behaviour.
“Our hope is that this approach can help guide the discovery of many more exotic materials,” says Guangze Chen. “Ultimately, this can lead to next-generation quantum computer platforms, built on materials that are naturally resistant to the kind of disturbances that plague current systems.”
Reference: “Topological Zero Modes and Correlation Pumping in an Engineered Kondo Lattice” by Zina Lippo, Elizabeth Louis Pereira, Jose L. Lado and Guangze Chen, 18 March 2025, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.116605
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At the smallest scales of nature, the rules of physics change dramatically from what we see in everyday life. Instead of behaving like solid objects, particles follow the strange principles of quantum mechanics. They can exist in more than one state at the same time and even affect each other in ways that seem impossible in classical physics.
VERY GOOD.
Please ask researchers to think deeply:
1. What objects in nature do not exist in more than one state at the same time?
2. What is the strange principles of quantum mechanics?
3. Is the fundamental theory of physics today scientific and honest?
An entire generation has been severely misled and poisoned by so-called peer-reviewed publications. In today’s physics, the so-called peer-reviewed journals—including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and others—stubbornly insist on and promote the following:
1. Even though θ and τ particles exhibit differences in experiments, physics can claim they are the same particle. This is science.
2. Even though topological vortices and antivortices have identical structures and opposite rotational directions, physics can define their structures and directions as entirely different. This is science.
3. Even though two sets of cobalt-60 rotate in opposite directions and experiments reveal asymmetry, physics can still define them as mirror images of each other. This is science.
4. Even though vortex structures are ubiquitous—from cosmic accretion disks to particle spins—physics must insist that vortex structures do not exist and require verification. Only the particles that like God, Demonic, or Angelic are the most fundamental structures of the universe. This is science.
5. Even though everything occupies space and maintains its existence in time, physics must still debate and insist on whether space exists and whether time is a figment of the human mind. This is science.
6. Even though space, with its non-stick, incompressible, and isotropic characteristics, provides a solid foundation for the development of physics, physics must still insist that the ideal fluid properties of space do not exist. This is science.
And so on.
The so-called peer-reviewed journals—including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and others openly define differences as sameness, sameness as differences, existence as nonexistence, and nonexistence as existence—all while deceiving and fooling the public with so-called “impact factors (IF),” never knowing what shame is.
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