God’s play? Chinese scientists catch cosmic rays meddling in quantum computer operation
Study finds direct link between correlated errors in multiple qubits and the activity of subatomic particles and gamma rays

“We directly observed quasiparticle bursts leading to correlated errors that are induced solely by muons and separated the contributions of muons and gamma rays,” they said in a paper published last month by the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications.
The findings could be significant for the scaling of quantum processors and the design of fault-tolerant quantum computing systems, which can function properly even if faults or errors are present, the scientists said.
According to the team – from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences and Nanjing Normal University – the proposed detection method could also be applied in cosmic ray and dark matter particle detection.
Unlike traditional computing’s unit of information that exists either as 0 or 1, its quantum counterpart relies on quantum bits or qubits that can exist in a multidimensional state, making possible more advanced and secure tasks.