Breakthrough in Quantum Computing: Harvard Physicists Achieve Continuous Operation of 3,000-Qubit System

Harvard physicists, led by Mikhail Lukin, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor, have made a significant breakthrough in quantum computing by demonstrating a system of more than 3,000 quantum bits (qubits) that can operate continuously without restarting. This achievement represents a major step towards building powerful supercomputers that can revolutionize science, medicine, finance, and other fields.

Key Takeaways:

• The team devised a system to continually resupply qubits using "optical lattice conveyor belts" and "optical tweezers," allowing for the reloading of up to 300,000 atoms per second.
• The system operated an array of more than 3,000 qubits for more than two hours, with more than 50 million atoms cycling through the system during that time.
• The new approach enables the continuous operation of the system, making it more practical for large-scale computations.
• The team plans to apply this approach to perform computations in follow-up experiments.
• This breakthrough represents a significant step towards realizing quantum computers that can execute billions of operations and continue running for days.

Statistics:

• 3,000: The number of qubits in the system demonstrated by the Harvard-led collaboration.
• 2 hours: The duration for which the system operated continuously.
• 50 million: The number of atoms that cycled through the system during the experiment.
• 300,000: The number of atoms that can be reloaded per second using the optical lattice conveyor belts.
• 3 papers: The number of papers published by the Harvard-MIT team in Nature this month, demonstrating advancements in quantum computing.

Sources:

• Harvard University Office of News and Public Affairs
• Harvard Staff Writer Kermit Pattison
• The journal Nature (publication of the team's research paper)