In February, Microsoft claimed it had created a new form of matter and used it to develop a quantum computer architecture that could potentially be put to work solving complex industrial problems within years. Since the announcement, some researchers and scientists have disputed these claims, saying Microsoft hasn’t actually achieved what it’s suggesting.
The promise of topological qubits
Microsoft stated its in-house experts had created “the world’s first topoconductor, a breakthrough type of material which can observe and control Majorana particles to produce more reliable and scalable qubits, which are the building blocks for quantum computers.” Majorana particles are fermions, a subatomic particle.
What makes these particular topological qubits potentially promising is their supposed natural ability to reduce errors, which is one of the biggest challenges facing all current quantum computers.
The topoconductor is one component of a new chip called Majorana 1, which Microsoft said could unlock industrial-scale uses for quantum computing within years. The company claimed the chip is an important roadmap to fitting one million qubits on a single chip. Moreover, Microsoft said the topoconductor can create an entirely new state of matter that enables Majorana particles to be arranged in a neat grid of H-shaped units.
“It’s complex in that we had to show a new state of matter to get there, but after that, it’s fairly simple. It tiles out. You have this much simpler architecture that promises a much faster path to scale,” said Krysta Svore, Microsoft technical fellow.
The research is part of DARPA’s Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) competition to create a quantum computer whose computational value outweighs its costs.
Skepticism from the scientific community
There are many reasons Microsoft’s announcement was a shock to the community, but the biggest one is because of the elusiveness of these Majorana particles. The particles were first proposed in 1937, but actually finding them has been challenging; yet, Microsoft declared it had not only detected these elusive particles but had managed to harness them in a working machine containing eight topological qubits.
Objections to Microsoft’s methodology have arisen since then, including the editor of Nature pointing out that the paper Microsoft published does not prove there are Majorana particles in any specific devices. What’s more, experiments of the type Microsoft performed tend to create false signals that can look like the presence of Majoranas, according to interviews conducted by NewScientist.
In addition, researchers argue that Microsoft simply hasn’t shared enough proof to back up its claims.
Henry Legg, a lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of St Andrews in the U.K., recently published a pre-print critique that states Microsoft’s work “is not reliable and must be revisited.”
Legg says the company’s work does not have a “consistent definition,” and that the findings “vary significantly, even for measurements of the same device.” Microsoft’s quantum VP, Zulfi Alam, fired back, calling Legg a “pontificator” who didn’t “bother to read the papers or even try to understand the data.”
SEE: Amazon says its Ocelot chip reduces errors that can plague quantum computing.
“The announcement from Microsoft on their topological qubit – a qubit harnessing matter which can be reformed to perform the low-error operations crucial to quantum computing’s success – has been a core strategy for Microsoft for over a decade,” said Gerald Mullally, interim CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits. “Their announcement indicates that qubits could be formed from a single ‘physical qubit’ using smart (but incredibly difficult) material and fabrication techniques just microns in size.”
Mullally goes on to say, “While this is a significant moment for the maturity and fast march of the industry, further research on measured coherence and gate fidelity characterisation – key metrics to understand the platform’s viability – is required to really understand its impact. Research such as this from a major technology company underpins the importance and prospects of commercial quantum computing.”
Time will tell whether Microsoft’s announcement represents a genuine quantum revolution.
TechnologyAdvice staff writer Megan Crouse contributed to this article.
