Quantum Computing

This isn't a quantum computing result. It's a classical computing result that makes quantum computing research actually possible.

The headline sounds modest. The math underneath it does not.

The last major advance in permanent magnets came in 1982. A new ARPA-E grant to Alice & Bob to use quantum computers to find rare-earth-free replacements is the first real test of whether cat-qubit hardware can deliver on its industrial promises.

Two new preprints say quantum computers could break encryption with far fewer qubits than thought. But 'could' and 'will' are not the same word — and the runtime estimates tell a different story than the qubit counts.

The paper demonstrates a broadband spin-selective photodiode. The press release says it will power quantum communication. Those are different things — and that gap is the actual story.

The qubit threshold for breaking real encryption just dropped from millions to 10,000. But the machine that would actually do it still does not exist.

IBM Research Zurich turned 70 and announced a new chapter with ETH Zurich. The chapter contents: undefined. No deliverables, no timelines, no hardware targets.

A Technion team measured individual bright squeezed vacuum pulses for the first time: 27.2 femtoseconds. It is real quantum optics — but no, this does not make quantum computers faster.

A deblurring trick from 1970s astronomy is beating the leading quantum error mitigation method on benchmark circuits. The catch: the leading method has been beaten before, and nothing shipped.

The peer-reviewed result: 91-94% logical qubit fidelity, beyond breakeven, on IBM transmon hardware. What the CEO claimed on a podcast about Shor algorithm accuracy is a different story.

Two preprints claim quantum computers need far fewer qubits to break ECC encryption. One comes from authors who own stock in a quantum company; the other withheld its technical details. Neither machine exists yet.