In a recent study published in Physical Review Letters, an international team of researchers led by Purdue University have expanded on previous research involving a field known as condensed matter theory, which studies properties of electronic quantum systems that could lead to advances in quantum computing devices.
“In our paper, we propose a quantum device that is simple enough to be theoretically modeled and tested experimentally in the future, yet also complex enough to display non-trivial emergent particles,” said Dr. Jukka Vayrynen, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue, and a co-author on the study. “Our results indicate that the proposed device can realize an emergent particle called a Fibonacci anyon that can be used as a building block of a quantum computer. The device is therefore a promising candidate for the development of quantum computing technology.”
As stated, this study builds upon previous research, which Dr. Vayrynen started as a post-doctoral researcher for Microsoft where he examined a theoretical model involving emergent particles in a condensed matter setting. Upon becoming a faculty member at Purdue, he passed along the mathematical calculations to his graduate student, Guangjie Li, believing the calculations to be straightforward, but provided unanticipated results in the end. While they initially believed this to be the end of the road, the team persevered and have turned the research into a promising path towards developing quantum computers.
Graduate student Li noted, “a Fibonacci anyon is an emergent particle with the property that as you add more particles to the system, the number of quantum states grows like the Fibonacci sequence, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc. In our system, a small quantum device is connected to conduction electron leads which will overly screen the device and can result in an emergent Fibonacci anyon.”
The study’s results could be used to allow future quantum computers to be less susceptible to noise, also called decoherence, and the team also provides several predictions that could be tested in future quantum devices, as well.
Laurence Tognetti is a six-year USAF Veteran who earned both a BSc and MSc from the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Laurence is extremely passionate about outer space and science communication, and is the author of "Outer Solar System Moons: Your Personal 3D Journey".
