📌 TOPINDIATOURS Breaking ai: Top 7 must-read quantum tech stories of 2025 – Intere

The year 2025 marked a turning point for quantum technology, shifting the field from promise-heavy experimentation toward clearer signs of practical impact. The year stood out for meaningful progress across hardware, software, communications, and policy. Instead of a single headline breakthrough, 2025 was defined by steady, coordinated advances that made quantum tech feel less speculative and more inevitable.

One of the most important themes of 2025 was the maturation of quantum hardware. Qubit counts continued to rise, but more importantly, error rates fell and system stability improved. Companies and research labs focused heavily on error mitigation, better control electronics, and scalable architectures rather than just raw qubit numbers. Multiple approaches—superconducting, trapped ions, photonics, and neutral atoms—showed credible paths forward, reinforcing the idea that the field is converging on solutions, not dead ends.

1. US mathematicians turn ‘useless’ math into breakthrough for quantum computing

1. US mathematicians turn ‘useless’ math into breakthrough for quantum computing

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) in the US turned to an often overlooked particle for storing and processing quantum information to overcome the fragility of quantum computers and make them more universal in the near future. Positioning one such particle in a quantum computer can help overcome errors in quantum computing.

In this approach, researchers work to secure quantum information by encoding it into the geometric properties of exotic particles called anyons. Predicted to exist in two dimensions, anyons are considered more resistant to noise and interference than other qubits, with Ising anyons leading the development of these quantum systems. 

2. World’s first quantum computer built using standard silicon chips launched

London-based Quantum Motion, a quantum computing startup that develops scalable quantum computing tech using silicon, launched the industry’s first full-stack quantum computer made with silicon. It was deployed at the UK National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC).

This is reportedly the first quantum computer to be built using the standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) chip fabrication process which is the same transistor technology used in conventional computers.

A key part of this approach is building cryoelectronics that connect qubits with control circuits that work at very low temperatures, making it possible to scale up quantum processors greatly.

3. World-first: US quantum computer solves problem million years faster than supercomputer

D-Wave Quantum Inc., a California-based startup working in the realm of quantum computing for commercial applications, has solved a real-world useful problem using its D-Wave Advantage 2 prototype annealing quantum computer.

The company confirmed its achievement through a peer-reviewed paper in a highly reputed scientific journal. 

According to Moore’s Law, a microchip’s computing power and efficiency doubles every two years. In the short time since computers have been around, we have seen a massive change in their capabilities, even as they continue to shrink in size.

Yet, scientists have been working to build bigger and better computers to carry out exascale computations and help us solve problems like climate change and drug discovery. 

4. Century-old math puzzle that stumped top supercomputers solved by quantum computing

Researchers have successfully used a quantum algorithm to solve a complex century-old mathematical problem long considered impossible for even the most powerful conventional supercomputers.

The achievement has direct applications in fields including particle physics, material science, and data transmission.

“Is there a computational problem that has an efficient quantum algorithm but no efficient randomized algorithm? Quantum computing is driven by the belief that the answer is yes,” said the researchers in a new study. The work was conducted by Martín Larocca, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Vojtěch Havlíček, a researcher at IBM. 

In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, they demonstrate that quantum computers can “factor group representations,” a foundational task in several scientific disciplines.

5. Van Gogh’s iconic ‘The Starry Night’ painting helps discover a new quantum vortex

Famous American writer Isaac Asimov once said, “There is an art to science, and science in art.” A new study proved this quote right by highlighting a never-before-seen connection between Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting “The Starry Night” and quantum physics.

The main focus of the study is the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI), an effect observed in the everyday world when two fluids slide past each other at different speeds, which can sculpt waves and whorls in clouds, rivers, or ocean surfaces.

Until now, no one had actually seen KHI in a quantum fluid. However, the authors of the current study not only captured it for the first time but also discovered crescent-shaped vortices, known as eccentric fractional skyrmions (EFSs), which bear a striking resemblance to the glowing moon in van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

6. Japan researchers harness quantum entanglement to boost robot posture control

Researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Waseda University, and Fujitsu have developed a novel way to make robots move smoothly and efficiently using quantum computing.

Usually, when a robot moves, its computer has to calculate how each of its joints should bend so that its hand or foot ends up in the right spot. This process, known as inverse kinematics, is extremely difficult for robots like humanoids because there are countless possible combinations.

The team’s new approach uses qubits to represent the position and orientation of each part of the robot. Even more importantly, they use quantum entanglement – a special feature of quant…

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🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 TOPINDIATOURS Breaking ai: New photon purification technique may unlock faster,

Light may be the cleanest carrier of information ever imagined—but in the quantum world, even light gets noisy.

Researchers at the University of Iowa say they have found a way to “purify” photons, potentially removing a major roadblock to faster quantum computers and more secure communication networks.

The advance tackles a long-standing problem in photonic technologies: how to reliably generate a perfectly ordered stream of single photons.

Single photons are the backbone of photonic quantum systems. Unlike classical bits, which toggle between ones and zeroes, quantum systems rely on qubits—often individual particles of light—to process and transmit information.

But producing photons one at a time, without strays or duplicates, has proven notoriously difficult.

Two persistent issues have slowed progress. One is laser scatter, where a laser used to excite an atom unintentionally produces extra photons.

The other occurs when atoms emit more than one photon at once, disrupting the delicate single-photon stream needed for quantum fidelity.

Instead of trying to suppress these effects independently, the Iowa team took a counterintuitive approach: let the noise fight itself.

Their theoretical work shows that the unwanted photons from laser scatter and multi-photon emission share nearly identical wavelength and waveform signatures.

By carefully tuning the laser’s properties, the two sources of noise can be made to cancel each other out, leaving behind a much purer photon stream.

The researchers say the idea could remove two major barriers to scaling photonic quantum hardware. Experimental tests are planned next.

Turning noise useful

“We have shown that stray laser scatter, typically considered a nuisance, can be harnessed to cancel out unwanted, multi-photon emission,” says Ravitej Uppu, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the study’s corresponding author.

“This theoretical breakthrough could turn a long-standing problem into a powerful new tool for advancing quantum technologies.”

At the heart of the discovery is work by graduate student Matthew Nelson, who identified the spectral overlap between the unwanted photons and the laser light itself.

That insight opened the door to using precise laser control—such as beam angle and shape—to suppress excess photon emissions.

“If we can control exactly how the laser beam shines on an atom — the angle at which it’s coming, the shape of the beam, and so on — you can actually make it cancel out all the additional photons that the atom likes to emit,” Uppu explains.

“We would be left with a stream that is actually very pure.”

Why purity matters

Photon purity is more than a technical detail. In photonic quantum computing, orderly single-photon streams are easier to control, synchronize, and scale. They also reduce the risk of errors and interference that can derail quantum operations.

There are security implications as well. Single-photon communication channels are harder to intercept or eavesdrop on, making them attractive for quantum encryption and secure data transfer.

A clean, predictable photon source strengthens those protections.

Photonic approaches are gaining momentum across the quantum industry, with several startups betting that light-based systems will outperform electronics in speed and energy efficiency.

But without reliable single-photon sources, those ambitions face hard limits.

The Iowa team’s work remains theoretical for now, but the researchers are preparing laboratory experiments to validate the model.

The project was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense and internal University of Iowa research funding.

If confirmed experimentally, the method could reshape how engineers think about noise in quantum systems—not as something to eliminate, but something to exploit, according to the study published in Optica Quantum.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com