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“Researchers have created the first fully programmable and reconfigurable quantum computing device in what is a milestone for the technology. The computer was introduced in a paper published in the journal Nature by researchers working with Christopher Monroe, a Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science at the University of Maryland. Quantum computers offer the prospect of ultra-fast processing speeds which could find solutions to certain complex problems exponentially faster than traditional computers. … To date, many research teams have developed small but functional quantum computers, although these devices are usually dedicated to solving very particular problems because they are only designed to run one program or a specific quantum algorithm.”

“Computer scientists have made a breakthrough that brings quantum computers one step closer to reality—they have succeeded building a quantum version of a Fredkin gate which is incredibly accurate. Researchers from Oxford University have demonstrated that single-qubit and two-qubit logic gates are possible with a record-breaking 99.9% precision, which is the benchmark that is required theoretically in order to make a quantum computer possible.”

“SOMEWHERE in California, Google is building a device that will usher in a new era for computing. It’s a quantum computer, the largest ever made, designed to prove once and for all that machines exploiting exotic physics can outperform the world’s top supercomputers. And New Scientist has learned it could be ready sooner than anyone expected—perhaps even by the end of next year.”

“In the latest Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, villain Kylo Ren uses The Force to stop a laser blast mid-air as it heads towards him. Now researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) have done something similar by using a cloud of very cold atoms to stop light moving. The development, published on Tuesday in Nature Physics, could be used to make a quantum logic gate, which is an important building block in the development of quantum computers, said lead author Jesse Everett, a doctoral student at ANU’s Centre for Quantum Computation and Communications Technology.”

“It has always been commonly believed that the process works by having one photon goes into the crystal, die, and then two new entangled photons are born in the same location, space and time as the one that died. However, the researchers found that the entangled pair of photons can actually originate from somewhere else in the crystal. … [and] if the entangled photons don’t quite work the way we thought, then the vacuum field will need to be factored into any future experiments involving quantum entanglement of light. If you don’t know exactly where the two photons are located, then there will be noise in the final calculation from the quantum computer or in the final image produced by an imaging tool.’ … ‘The research invites the question of how accurate any applications that use light-based quantum entanglement.’