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Major Setback for Topological Computing?

Oct 1, 2021
1 min read

Significant paper in Nature retracted








The news from the Kouwenhoven Lab is not good. What was thought to be a signal of a Majorana current turns out to be less certain. Leo Kouwenhoven (above from his website) is among the best and most well respected in the field of quantum nano science. And he is not easy to fool. So this retraction comes as a surprise and suggests that we all must be diligent.


The story is not over yet!

The Delft team along with those at UCSB, and various other groups around the world continue to make strides toward measuring this illusive signature of quantum weirdness in low dimensional materials. And though this is a setback, it is a little early to herald the demise of the topological approach. These measurements are hard to do, and we are only on the fringe of understanding how they should work anyway. It does make some sense that, for those challenging the frontier like Kouwenhoven, there will be some backtracking. We are fortunate he trains his students well (it was two former members of his team that found the mistake).




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To read more about this: https://www.quantamagazine.org/major-quantum-computing-strategy-suffers-serious-setbacks-20210929/


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This is such an important reminder that even the best in the field can get it wrong sometimes. The fact that two of Kouwenhoven's former students caught the mistake says a lot about the culture of intellectual honesty he's built in his lab. Science is messy, and retractions like this are actually a sign of health, not failure. Speaking of careful measurement and getting feedback, it reminds me a bit of the choicer voicer game, where you have to rely on precise vocal control to score well—it's all about tuning your approach based on what the judge hears. These quantum measurements feel similarly finicky, just with way higher stakes.

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