Explained | What is Microsoft’s planned “quantum supercomputer“? Premium

In a paper published on June 21, researchers at Microsoft announced that they had figured out a way to create an elusive kind of particle that could potentially revolutionise quantum computing. The claim pertains to particles called Majorana zero modes, whose unique properties could help build topological quantum computers, which are much less fragile than convention quantum computers.

In a paper published on June 21, researchers at Microsoft announced that they had figured out a way to create an elusive kind of particle that could potentially revolutionise quantum computing.

The claim pertains to particles called Majorana zero modes, whose unique properties could help build quantum computers that are much less fragile than they are today, making them computationally superior.

All subatomic particles that make up matter are called fermions. (More accurately, only fermions can make up matter.)

In 1928, the British physicist Paul Dirac wanted to understand how quantum mechanics would change if it accommodated the special theory of relativity as well. The result was the Dirac equation, which described the behaviour of subatomic particles that moved at near the speed of light.

Dirac noticed that the equation predicted the existence of an antiparticle for each particle, such that if the two meet, they annihilate each other. Based on his prediction, scientists found the first antiparticle, the positron (or the anti-electron), in 1932. The discovery has been hailed as a good example of theory leading experiment.

In 1937, the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana found that the Dirac equation also allowed particles that satisfied certain conditions to be their own antiparticles. In his honour, fermions that are their own antiparticles are called Majorana fermions.

One subatomic particle that physicists think could be Majorana fermions are neutrinos. We don’t yet have experimental proof that they are, however.