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Laird Egan

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  • A photo of Laird Egan at a desk

    Science in Quarantine: A Rush to Go Remote

    May 18, 2022

    In this episode, we look back at the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when impending lab closures were threatening scientific progress and graduate student careers. We sit down with Laird Egan, then a graduate student in physics at JQI, and hear about how he and his lab mates managed to turn their ion-based quantum computer into a remote-controlled experiment in a matter of weeks. We also learn how they used their newly remote lab to achieve a milestone in quantum computing.

  • A chip made of golden bow-tie-shaped structure on top of a dark rectangular base that is used to contain ions for experiments and quantum computing tasks. The base of the chip has illegible markings on it.

    Foundational Step Shows Quantum Computers Can Be Better Than the Sum of Their Parts

    October 4, 2021

    Pobody’s nerfect—not even the indifferent, calculating bits that are the foundation of computers. But JQI Fellow Christopher Monroe’s group, together with colleagues from Duke University, have made progress toward ensuring we can trust the results of quantum computers even when they are built from pieces that sometimes fail. They have shown in an experiment, for the first time, that an assembly of quantum computing pieces can be better than the worst parts used to make it. In a paper published in the journal Nature on Oct. 4, 2021, the team shared how they took this landmark step toward reliable, practical quantum computers. In their experiment, the researchers combined several qubits—the quantum version of bits—so that they functioned together as a single unit called a logical qubit. They created the logical qubit based on a quantum error correction code so that, unlike for the individual physical qubits, errors can be easily detected and corrected, and they made it to be fault-tolerant—capable of containing errors to minimize their negative effects. This is the first time that a logical qubit has been shown to be more reliable than the most error-prone step required to make it.