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Majorana muddle

The Register reported that Science magazine will lift an editorial expression of concern and replace it with a correction regarding a paper on using nanowires on a superconducting substrate. The paper informs a more recent publication on Majorana particles and topological qubits, both involving Microsoft-supported researchers.

Detailing a “bitter” public fight among some of the paper’s authors and reviewers, The Register outlines the questions this Majorana research has faced. To date, the change outlined by The Register has not been made, but it has been confirmed by at least one author on paper.

"There are no incorrect statements in the paper…The only thing that the expression of concern [raised was] you didn't describe in detail how you tuned up the device. That's now been added information in case anybody wants to look at that. So it's a total clearing of the paper," University of Washington’s Charles Marcus, an author on the paper, said. Marcus was a former scientific director of the Microsoft Quantum Lab at the University of Copenhagen.

"We have been investigating issues in Microsoft’s research on Majorana for over five years now," said Sergey Frolov, an initial reviewer at the University of Pittsburgh. "Our work has so far resulted in two Nature retractions, several corrections, and two expressions of concern…It’s unfortunate to see Science making a different decision here."

Read the full story and the extensive back-and-forth surrounding it in The Register. The initial article in Science and Frolov’s now-public complaint to the journal are also available.

Excitonic insulators

A team at the University of California Irvine demonstrated a spin-triplet excitonic insulator and with it a new phase of quantum matter. “It’s only been theoretically predicted – no one has ever measured it until now,” said Luis A. Jauregui at UC Irvine.

The team applied a high-intensity magnetic field to the material, causing its “ability to carry electricity suddenly drop, showing that it has transformed into this exotic state,” Jauregui said. “[I]t may allow signals to be carried by spin rather than electrical charge, offering a new path toward energy-efficient technologies like spin-based electronics or quantum devices.”

This work appeared in Physical Review Letters.

Braided anyons

An international collaboration among IBM, Cornell, Harvard University and the Weizman Institute of Science demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to encode information by braiding Fibonacci string net condensate anyons in two dimensional space.

“This is really the first step towards universal topological quantum computing, or fault tolerant computing,” said Eun-Ah Kim in an announcement from Cornell. 

This work was published in Nature Communications.

Illinois: A Global Powerhouse

This story is sponsored by the Global Quantum Forum and its hosts, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, P33, and Intersect Illinois.

Chicago’s electrical power and brain power make it a global hub for quantum computing and research. The state launched the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, last year on the city’s South Side. PsiQuantum, IBM, and Infleqtion will build quantum computers in the park.

“Illinois is number one in a lot of things. It’s definitely number one in nuclear energy” and is among the cleanest grids in the country, Kathleen Barrón, chief strategy and growth officer for Constellation Energy, said. “Illinois is attractive to quantum because it’s such a clean grid.”

A panel of leaders from computing, power distribution, and power generation companies discussed the topic during the Global Quantum Forum in July.

Read an overview in a special issue of Quantum Campus. Or watch the full panel below.

Quickbits

• Synthesis of bulk hexagonal diamond (Nature)

• IonQ to build quantum-classical hybrid machine for Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information

• An on-chip phased array for non-classical light (Nature Communications)

Quantum Campus is edited by Bill Bell, a science writer and marketing consultant who has covered physics and high-performance computing for more than 25 years. Disclosure statement.