Microsoft has been betting on a quantum particle referred to as the Majorana fermion to construct a working quantum pc, and in 2018 a workforce from the Delft Technical University, funded by Microsoft, introduced that they’ve confirmed this particle does exist in supercool semiconductor nano-wires.
Now the identical workforce has needed to admit that their interpretation of their information was flawed, dashing Microsoft’s hope of being one of many first with a working Quantum supercomputer.
The admission got here after two physicists requested for the uncooked information from the related experiment.
“I don’t know for sure what was in their heads,” says Sergey Frolov, a professor on the University of Pittsburgh, “but they skipped some data that contradicts directly what was in the paper. From the fuller data, there’s no doubt that there’s no Majorana.”
There is now an ongoing investigation into the workforce by the Delft Technical University’s analysis integrity committee.
Microsoft had hoped to observe an unorthodox method by persuing Majorana particles, which had the promise of making extra secure quantum computer systems, in the event that they existed.
The doubtless retraction of the 2018 paper will imply Microsoft went from a promising know-how to nothing in any respect, whereas Google, utilizing extra typical know-how, has already introduced that they’ve achieved quantum supremacy in 2019.
Researchers chasing the Majorana fermion haven’t given up hope, nevertheless.
Sankar Das Sarma, a theoretical physicist on the University of Maryland who has collaborated with Microsoft researchers, believes the know-how will finally work, however it might take some time.
“I see no reason why a Majorana fermion cannot exist or that once it exists you cannot control it,” he says. “But it may be 30 years away.”
