{"id":371324,"date":"2026-04-02T14:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/371324\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:45:09","slug":"dancing-to-invisible-choreography-quantum-computers-can-balance-the-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/371324\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing to Invisible Choreography, Quantum Computers Can Balance The Noise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Insider Brief<\/p>\n

Researchers from Virginia Tech developed a quantum control method based on geometric pulse design that suppresses noise in qubits, improving the reliability of quantum computations.<\/p>\n

The approach maps electromagnetic control pulses to underlying geometric shapes, allowing researchers to tune pulse parameters to reduce errors without the previously assumed trade-off between precision and noise. <\/p>\n

The method was experimentally validated on IBM quantum hardware, demonstrating improved noise tolerance and suggesting a practical path toward more stable, large-scale quantum computers.<\/p>\n

PRESS RELEASE \u2014 Large-scale quantum computers are waiting in the wings. One of the main reasons we don\u2019t have them yet is because quantum hardware is so noisy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the type of noise you\u2019d want to shush in a crowded theater. When it comes to computers, noise means errors that crop up when conditions aren\u2019t perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to find a way to detect errors and correct for them,\u201d said graduate student Evangelos Piliouras. Working with physicist Ed Barnes, Piliouras devised a method to reduce the noise and make quantum computers more noise tolerant. His work was published last month in\u00a0Nature Partner Journal Quantum Information<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Responsive<\/a><\/p>\n

Noise can have real-world implications even in a traditional computer, which uses a stream of electrical signals called bits that represent the 1s and 0s that make up binary code. Noise can knock a 0 into a 1, and a credit card transaction, for instance, might fail.<\/p>\n

A quantum computer uses qubits, which are typically subatomic particles such as electrons or photons that can represent many possible combinations of\u00a01\u00a0and\u00a00at the same time.<\/p>\n

Occupying multiple states at once is called superposition and gives quantum computers tremendous power. But it\u2019s a precarious move to hold.<\/p>\n

Researchers get a qubit into superposition using electromagnetic pulses, like a precision laser or microwave beam. Once it\u2019s in superposition, even a little bit of noise \u2014 a slight vibration or temperature change \u2014 can cause a qubit to stumble out of superposition like a beginner ballerina.<\/p>\n

To keep qubits on point, researchers do their best to protect them from the outside world in supercooled fridges and vacuum chambers. They\u2019ve experimented with new materials and equipment to minimize noise, but there\u2019s only so much that can be done to improve the hardware.<\/p>\n

So they found another way: Over the past few decades, physicists discovered that they could lower error rates by tailoring the shape of those electromagnetic pulses that put the qubits into superposition.<\/p>\n

This technique is called quantum control, and it\u2019s endlessly configurable. The duration, frequency, and intensity of the pulses can be adjusted to change the qubit\u2019s state\u00a0and perform different operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blessing and the curse of quantum control is that you have infinitely many ways to achieve the same task, but nobody tells you the best way,\u201d Piliouras said.<\/p>\n

For many years, researchers believed that there was an inherent trade-off in quantum control: You can design the perfect pulse for a certain quantum operation, but the noise would be through the roof.<\/p>\n

This is where Barnes, Piliouras, and their team come in: Their solution is built on a framework that describes the shape of the pulse as something cast by a hidden geometrical structure \u2014 as if it were a shadow of a 3D object on a wall.\u00a0In the field of quantum physics, this perspective is referred to as quantum geometry.<\/p>\n

The curves and corners of the invisible shape can dictate the parameters of the pulse, like a dancer\u2019s choreography. The Virginia Tech researchers realized that they could simply adjust the shape of a 3D space curve to design a pulse that suppressed noise errors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been surprised multiple times by how simple and elegant the requirements for noise suppression become once we translate them into this geometric language,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n

After honing their technique, Barnes and Piliouras teamed up with Hisham Amer, another Virginia Tech graduate student, who was able to verify it by running experiments on IBM\u2019s quantum computing hardware.<\/p>\n

With these performance improvements, we are one day closer to a large-scale quantum computing premiere.<\/p>\n

Original study<\/a>\u00a0DOI\u00a010.1038\/s41534-026-01190-6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Insider Brief Researchers from Virginia Tech developed a quantum control method based on geometric pulse design that suppresses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[53149,5464,85,46,77648,141,5986],"class_list":{"0":"post-371324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-error-correction","9":"tag-ibm","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-noise","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-virginia-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}