"Majorana fermions are enigmatic particles that act as their own antiparticle and were first hypothesized to exist in 1937. They are of immense interest to physicists because their unique properties could allow them to be used in the construction of a topological quantum computer."
To keep those quantum states stable, the wires would host Majorana zero modes induced and localized at each end - Microsoft.
Majorana particles are their own antiparticles.
Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana, born on 5 August 1906 (possibly dying after 1959), was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrino masses. So, nutrino science refers to A neutrino (denoted by the Greek letter ν), an elementary particle (fermion) with (spin of 1/2) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. Because it is electrically neutral it is called nutrino. Another unique thing about this particle is its rest mass is so small (-ino) that long thought to be zero.
The rest mass of the neutrino is much smaller than that of the other known elementary particles excluding massless particles. For example the gauge bosons, photon (carrier of electromagnetism) and another example is the gluon (carrier of the strong force). The weak force has a very short range, the gravitational interaction is extremely weak, and neutrinos do not participate in the strong interaction. Thus, neutrinos typically pass through normal matter unimpeded and undetected - called elusive particles. Microsoft believes they can use them for a full-stack quantum computing platform (named topological) with a unique design and a broad application use , way more than optimization, and chemistry or financial solutions.
The concept goes back to Majorana's suggestion in 1937 that neutral spin-1⁄2 particles can be described by a real-valuedwave equation (the Majorana equation), and would therefore be identical to their antiparticle (because the wave functions of particle and antiparticle are related by complex conjugation).
"Majorana bound states are an example of non-abelian anyons: interchanging them changes the state of the system in a way that depends only on the order in which the exchange was performed. The non-abelian statistics that Majorana bound states possess allows them to be used as a building block for a topological quantum computer. (Wikipedia)" The simple definition of non-abelian statistics and mathematics, and specifically is that in group theory, a non-abelian group is a group in which there exists at least one pair of elements a and b of G, such that a ∗ b ≠ (not equal) b ∗ a. This class of groups contrasts with the abelian groups.
So the story goes on and gets more interesting. On 25 March 1938, Majorana disappeared under mysterious circumstances after purchasing a ticket to travel by ship from Palermo to Naples. The Majorana equation and Majorana fermions, and Microsoft Quantum Computing full-stack quantum calculation concept, are named after him.
In 2006, the Majorana Prize was established in his memory. In 1938, Enrico Fermi said about Majorana: "There are several categories of scientists in the world; those of second or third rank do their best but never get very far. Then there is the first rank, those who make important discoveries fundamental to scientific progress. But then there are the geniuses (exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability,) like Galilei and Newton. Majorana was one of these.
So let's talk about Microsoft quantum concept. As of today, it is just a concept and if they have identified the particle, it may be a giant leap toward a fault-tolerant, highly stable full stack computing platform that can outperform all classical and existing universal, and ion trapping quantum computers.
Microsoft has chosen a particularly exotic technological strategy, which involves inducing quantum states on topological superconducting wires.
To keep those quantum states stable, the wires would host Majorana zero modes induced and localized at each end.
A recent announcement from Microsoft claims its researchers have found evidence of an exotic phenomenon, the key to its plans to build general-purpose quantum computers.
The "Majorana zero mode" phenomenon is expected to smooth the path for topological quantum computing favored by Microsoft's Azure Quantum program.
Microsoft has chosen a particularly exotic technological strategy involving "inducing" quantum states on topological superconducting wires.
The wires would host Majorana zero modes localized at each end to keep those quantum states stable.
Majorana zero modes have been a topic of theoretical interest since 1937, but they remained exclusively in the realm of theory for decades. As I remember, in 2018, a team of researchers reported that they had created the phenomenon, only to retract their claims three years later. Other claims have met with controversy, casting doubt on the prospects for topological quantum computing.
That is not the whole story. While studying other signatures in the electrical conductance data, it pointed to the opening and closing of what's known as a topological gap — another telltale sign pointing to successful detection.
"It was suddenly wow," Roman Lutchyn, a Microsoft partner research manager with expertise in quantum simulation, said in a Microsoft report on the Majorana research. "We looked at the data, and this was it."
This is all excellent news. Even if the results are validated, it will take more research to create topological qubits and assemble a fully-functioning, fault-tolerant quantum computer ready for prime time to compete with Google, ionq, IBM and others. We now know that Project Q at Microsoft will continue, and they know that they're on the right track.
"What's amazing is humans have been able to engineer a system to demonstrate one of the most exotic pieces of physics in the universe," said Microsoft engineer Krysta Svore, who leads the company's quantum software development program. "And we expect to capitalize on this to do the almost unthinkable — to push toward a fault-tolerant quantum machine that will enable computation on an entirely new level that's closer to the way nature operates."
I will cover more details as I learn more. I am currently reading the content on Microsoft Q lab.
Edit: fixed some words.
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