Google Demonstrates Method to Cut Errors in Quantum Computing’s ‘Magic States’

Google researchers reduced errors in a crucial quantum computing resource about 40-fold, demonstrating a method that could lower the hardware demands of useful, error-corrected machines.

Ultimately, then, this looks to be an important, incremental advance toward practical quantum computing that demonstrates a way to prepare essential quantum states with fewer errors and potentially lower hardware demands.

Why Magic States Matter Quantum computers process information using qubits, which are vulnerable to disturbances that can corrupt a calculation.

The technique, called logical state tomography, estimates a quantum state by combining measurements taken in different ways.

The observed logical error rate was about seven times higher than predicted by simulations, according to the supplement.