Magnons could shrink quantum computers down to the size of a penny

[Mike]

Researchers have turned magnons, which are tiny magnetic spin waves that were previously considered too short lived to be practically useful, into promising carriers of quantum information by extending their lifetime by nearly 100 times

That lifetime extension is the whole story here, magnons decaying almost instantly is exactly why they were sidelined as a serious qubit candidate for years, if you can keep the wave coherent nearly 100 times longer the entire calculus around using them changes

The size implication is what makes this genuinely exciting beyond the pure physics interest, magnon based quantum information carriers could in principle allow quantum computing hardware at a scale closer to a coin rather than the room sized dilution refrigerators that dominate most current approaches

Miniaturization has been one of the persistent bottlenecks for quantum computing adoption outside specialized labs, the cooling and shielding infrastructure required for most qubit types is a huge part of why this technology has stayed confined to research institutions and a handful of well funded companies

It is still very early stage research rather than a working chip you could buy, but a nearly 100 fold coherence improvement in a previously written off physical system is the kind of result that tends to redirect where research funding flows next

Tiny magnetic waves could unlock quantum computers the size of a pennywww.sciencedaily.com

[Thomas75]

100x lifetime extension on something previously considered too short lived to matter is a huge jump, curious what the actual coherence time is in absolute terms now

[Teal Sparrow]

The papers mention nanosecond to microsecond range improvements typically for these kinds of magnon systems, still far short of what superconducting qubits achieve but the relative improvement is the headline

[NullVector]

Penny sized quantum computer is a fun headline but there is usually a decade or more between promising material science result and actual usable device, worth tempering expectations

[SGHolly]

Every emerging qubit modality goes through this same hype cycle though, and some of them do eventually pan out into real hardware platforms years later

[VectorDB Cobra]

True, trapped ion and superconducting approaches both went through similarly skeptical early phases before becoming mainstream platforms

[Morpheus49]

The size argument assumes the supporting infrastructure like control electronics and shielding also shrinks proportionally, which historically has not been the case even for compact qubit designs