This Weird New Phase of Matter Seems to Occupy 2 Time Dimensions

A new phase of matter has been observed in a quantum computer.

The quirk of quantum mechanics that behaves as though it has two time dimensions instead of one makes the qubits more stable for the entire experiment.

One of the main goals for an error-free quantum computer is stability, and it is one of the hardest to achieve.

The work represents a completely different way of thinking about the phases of matter.

It's exciting to see the theory ideas come to fruition in experiments.

The qubits are the equivalent of computing bits. A 1 or a 0 qubits can be both simultaneously in a state known as quantum superposition.

The mathematical nature of that superposition makes it easy to solve a problem under certain circumstances.

The nature of a series of qubits depends on how they relate to each other.

It's frustrating that qubits can entangle with everything in its environment. The more delicate a qubit's blurry state is, the more likely it is to lose its coherence.

Improving coherence to the point of viability is likely a multi-tactic approach to clear a hurdle in the way of a functional quantum computer.

"If you keep all the atoms under tight control, they can lose their quantumness by talking to their environment, heating up or interacting with things that you didn't plan on," he said.

Experiments have a lot of sources of error that can degrade coherence after a few lasers.

One way to protect qubits is by forcing a symmetry. It's the same shape if you rotation it ninety degrees. It is protected from some effects of rotation.

There is a symmetry based on time and not space. They wondered if they could dial up the effect by adding asymmetrical quasiperiodicity.

They thought that this would add not one time symmetry, but two.

The team that came up with the idea of a quasicrystal in time was the one that came up with the idea in the first place. The pattern of atoms on a quasicrystal is non-repeating, like a square grid jungle gym or a honeycomb, yet still ordered.

An experiment was conducted on a commercial quantum computer. One of the elements used for atomic clocks is ytterbium. Lasers can be used to control or measure the atoms in the trap.

Each segment of the laser pulse is the sum of the two previous ones. Just like a quasicrystal, this results in a sequence that is ordered, but not repeated.

Lower-dimensional segments of higher-dimensional lattices are called quasicrystals. A penrose is a two-dimensional slice of a five-dimensional hyper cube.

The team's laser pulse is a representation of a two-dimensional pattern. This means that it could possibly impose two time symmetries on qubits.

The team flashed lasers at the ytterbium qubit array to test their work. The coherence of the two qubits was measured.

The qubits were stable for a short time. They were stable for the duration of the experiment.

Another layer of protection was added by the additional time symmetry.

There is a complicated evolution that cancels out all the errors that live on the edge.

The edge stays quantum-mechanically coherent a lot longer than you would think.

The work is not close to being ready for integration into a functional quantum computer, but it is an important step towards that goal.

The research was published in a journal.