Technology
Making a strange state of matter called a time crystal inside a quantum computer helped researchers stabilise a fragile quantum state inspired by Schrödinger’s cat
Could quantum computers be made more stable using time crystals?
John D/Getty Images
Time crystals can be used to stabilise fragile states within quantum computers, which could one day give them an edge over traditional computers.
When Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek first theorised that time crystals exist in 2012, the idea was controversial because their defining characteristic is that they flip between two configurations forever without any energy input – a seeming violation of the laws of physics. Since then, however, several research groups have created time crystals in the lab, including inside a quantum…
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