SCIENCE & TECH Harvard physicists make a new phase of matter

Anne J. Manning

February 20, 2024

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/02/harvard-physicists-create-a-new-phase-of-matter/

This article is about how Harvard physicists led by Professor Ashvin Vishwanath created and manipulated non-Abelian anyons. These non-Abelian anyons inferented stability and special memory-carrying capabilities. They said these unique particles are potentially useful for stable qubits in quantum computing. The team used Quantinuum's advanced H2 quantum processor, employing 27 trapped ions and employing targeted measurements to increase the complexity of their quantum system, allowing them to engineer a quantum wave function with the desired properties. I was awed, once again reminded that quantum physics is not just numbers on a sheet of paper; it's how we observe the behavior of a world made of atoms(which is made of quarks).