Qubits inspired by Schrödinger's cat could be 160 times more reliable thanks to 'compression' technique

(Image credit: VICTOR de SCHWANBERG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images)

Quantum computing company Alice & Bob has improved the reliability of its cat qubits, which could significantly improve the accuracy of future quantum computers.

Fault tolerance is an important issue in quantum computing. This is because qubits in quantum systems are susceptible to noise and decoherence, the loss of quantum information due to environmental interference. Therefore, developing robust qubits using fault-tolerant technologies has become an important area of research.

There was a particular desire to reduce the error rate associated with bit reversals (when a qubit changes its probabilities of measuring 0 or 1). However, it had previously been found that this leads to increased errors in phase reversals (when a qubit changes its probabilities of being positive or negative).