Scientists have made a breakthrough in a “magic state” they've been working on for 20 years. Without it, quantum computers would never be truly useful.

(Image credit: QuEra)

For the first time in history, scientists have demonstrated a mysterious effect in quantum computing that could pave the way for fault-tolerant machines that are far more powerful than any supercomputer.

The process, known as “magic state distillation,” was proposed 20 years ago, but researchers have been unable to implement it on logical qubits since then. It has long been considered essential for obtaining the high-quality resources, known as “magic states,” needed to fully realize the potential of quantum computers.

Magic states are quantum states that are prepared in advance and then used as resources for complex quantum algorithms. Without these resources, quantum computers would not be able to apply the strange laws of quantum mechanics to process data in parallel.