Submission + - Evidence of Majorana fermions seen by Purdue physicist (purdue.edu)
dsinc writes: A Purdue University physicist has observed evidence of long-sought Majorana fermions, special particles that could unleash the potential of fault-tolerant quantum computing.
The pursuit of Majorana fermions is driven by their potential to encode quantum information in a way that solves a problem dogging quantum computing. The current carriers of quantum bits, the basic unit of information in quantum computing, are delicate and easily destroyed by small disturbances from the local environment. Information stored through Majorana fermions could be protected from such perturbances, resulting in a much more resilient quantum bit and 'fault-tolerant' quantum computing
The pursuit of Majorana fermions is driven by their potential to encode quantum information in a way that solves a problem dogging quantum computing. The current carriers of quantum bits, the basic unit of information in quantum computing, are delicate and easily destroyed by small disturbances from the local environment. Information stored through Majorana fermions could be protected from such perturbances, resulting in a much more resilient quantum bit and 'fault-tolerant' quantum computing