Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 6 hrs ago
Quantum computer experiment finds a tipping point between chaos and control
Researchers at Rutgers University and IBM found a way to shift a quantum processor from chaos toward control by checking and resetting its qubits as it ran.
They tested the method on an IBM processor, using a connected chain of up to 100 qubits.
Qubits can hold delicate quantum states, but heat, electrical signals and hardware flaws can disturb them and cause errors to build up.
The switch happened when checks and resets made up about half of the operations, with the experiment’s tipping point at 49.5%.
The team carried out nearly 5,000 operations that scrambled information and nearly 5,000 checks and resets.
This was not error correction itself, and fully fault-tolerant quantum computers remain out of reach.
The result shows that repeated checks and resets may help future quantum computers keep working through errors, but the experiment does not establish that those machines are close to being built.
Researchers found a tipping point where frequent checks and resets changed a quantum processor from chaotic behavior to a state they could steer.
The switch occurred when checks and resets made up about half of the operations, with the measured threshold at 49.5%.
The team used IBM’s 156-qubit Heron processor and a connected chain of up to 100 qubits.
The experiment involved nearly 5,000 operations linking pairs of qubits and nearly 5,000 checks and resets.
The work was not itself error correction, and large-scale, fully fault-tolerant quantum computers remain out of reach.
- Who
- Researchers at Rutgers University and IBM led the work. Jedediah Pixley of Rutgers and Maika Takita of IBM were senior authors.
- What
- An experiment found that repeated qubit checks and resets could shift a quantum processor from chaotic behavior to a steerable state.
- When
- The article was published on 2026-10-28. The experiment date is not stated.
- Where
- The experiment used IBM’s Heron processor. The article does not state where it was run.
- Why
- Researchers studied whether repeated checks and resets could help control errors and support reliable quantum computing.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Pixley and collaborator Sriram Ganeshan discussed a puzzling quantum effect at a birthday party for Pixley’s wife.
Pixley’s team used IBM’s 156-qubit Heron processor to study a connected chain of up to 100 qubits.
- Processor
- IBM 156-qubit Heron
- Qubit chain
- Up to 100 connected qubits
- Tipping point
- 49.5% checks
- Operations
- Nearly 5,000 pair-linking operations and nearly 5,000 checks and resets
- Senior authors
- Jedediah Pixley of Rutgers and Maika Takita of IBM
What people are saying
To build a fault-tolerant quantum computer, we have to make these checks and corrections not just once or twice, but a huge number of times during a calculation,
It wasn’t obvious that this transition between chaos and control would survive in quantum physics, but our results show that it does,