Cornell–IBM collaboration advances quantum computing

The quantum computing revolution draws ever nearer, but the need for a computer that makes correctable errors continues to hold it back.

Through a collaboration with IBM led by Cornell, researchers have brought that revolution one step closer, achieving two major breakthroughs. First, they demonstrated an error-resistant implementation of universal quantum gates, the essential building blocks of quantum computation. Second, they showcased the power of a topological quantum computer in solving hard problems that a conventional computer couldn’t manage.

An international collaboration between researchers at IBM, Cornell, Harvard University and the Weizman Institute of Science demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to encode information by braiding – moving in a particular order – Fibonacci string net condensate (Fib SNC) anyons, which are exotic quasi-particles, in two dimensional space.

Read the full story in the Cornell Chronicle.

Physicists take step toward a holy grail for electron spins

For decades, ferromagnetic materials have driven technologies like magnetic hard drives, magnetic random access memories and oscillators. But antiferromagnetic materials, if only they could be harnessed, hold out even greater promise: ultra-fast information transfer and communications at much higher frequencies – a “holy grail” for physicists.

Now, researchers have taken a meaningful step towards utilizing antiferromagnets for new technologies. In “Spin-filter tunneling detection of antiferromagnetic resonance with electrically-tunable damping,” published July 10 in Science, they describe their innovative approach for both detecting and controlling the motion of spins within antiferromagnets using 2D antiferromagnetic materials and tunnel junctions.

Read the full story in the Cornell Chronicle.

One tiny particle could complicate predictions of physics theorists

Picture an 11,000-pound elephant standing on a bathroom scale. Now imagine that scale is so precise, it can tell that you placed a couple of sunflower seeds on the elephant’s back.

That is the level of precision achieved by an international collaboration, including Cornell researchers, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The group set out to measure the magnetic anomaly of the muon – a tiny, elusive particle that could have very big implications for understanding the subatomic world.

On June 3, the collaboration – which consists of 176 scientists from 34 institutions in seven countries – announced that the third and final round of data, collected between 2021 and 2023, has been analyzed, and the researchers have increased the precision of their measurement by more than a factor of four, to 127 parts-per-billion.

Read the full story in the Cornell Chronicle.