dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Researchers led by the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland, have made a breakthrough in the field of quantum computing through the utilization of a cuprous oxide gemstone mined in Nambia. Quantum computing has been dubbed the “holy grail” of science, but current quantum computers remain too small to outperform current standard computers.

The research, published in Nature Materials, was achieved through a partnership between scientists at Harvard University in Boston, United States, Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark.

The team used cuprous oxide (Cu2O) to create Rydberg polaritons. Rydberg polaritons continuously bounce back from light to matter and are crucial for the creation of quantum simulators, which are stored in quantum bits.

Quantum bits can use any value between 0 and 1, while binary bits, used in classical computers, can only be 0 or 1, allowing quantum bits to store far more information and perform several processes simultaneously.

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1515144077833953280

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-022-01230-4.epdf