wunder.newsA little wonder every day

Technology1:09 video3 primary sources

Google tests a way to prepare more reliable quantum states

Google's Willow chip prepared a quantum state with fewer errors, but few attempts were kept.

By

Images: Rosenfeld et al., arXiv:2512.13908, Figure 1 (CC BY 4.0 (arXiv licence for 2512.13908, shown on the arXiv abstract page))

Narrated and written with AI, checked against primary sources. Our standards

The gist

  • The cultivated state reached about 99.99 percent fidelity, roughly a 40-fold drop in error.
  • Only about 8% of attempts were kept, after selecting those with no detected errors.
  • The team moved that state from one system that protects quantum information into another.

What happened

Google's quantum computing team tested magic state cultivation on its Willow chip and reported the work in Science, a scientific journal. A magic state is a specially prepared quantum state needed for more capable calculations, and cultivation checks and refines it. The cultivated state had roughly a 40-fold drop in error compared with preparing it without cultivation, but only about 8% of attempts were kept.

Why it matters

Preparing reliable quantum states more efficiently could reduce a major resource obstacle to useful quantum computers, though larger-scale tests and full calculations remain ahead.

How we know

In the researchers' paper in Science, the team tested cultivation on Willow and compared measured state errors with preparation by injection alone, reporting the improvement for selected attempts.

Sources & credits3 sources · 3 credits

Sources

  1. Magic state cultivation on a superconducting quantum processor (Rosenfeld et al., First Release Oct. 15, 2026)Science · Oct 15, 2026 · science.org
  2. Magic state cultivation on a superconducting quantum processorarXiv 2512.13908 (authors' version, CC BY 4.0) · Oct 18, 2026 · arxiv.org
  3. Bringing the magic: Google breaks open a bottleneck in quantum computing (Oct. 15, 2026)Google (official statement) · Oct 15, 2026 · blog.google

Image, footage and music credits

  • Images: Rosenfeld et al., arXiv:2512.13908, Figure 1 (CC BY 4.0 (arXiv licence for 2512.13908, shown on the arXiv abstract page))Licence terms · Source pageChanges: Center-cropped to fit. No other edits.Licence checked 2026-10-18
  • Illustrations: made for Wunder News by Astra (Codex image generation, AI); labelled "Illustration" on screen
  • Audio credit: narration by ElevenLabs AI voice (Max); music and sound effects AI-generated for Wunder News with ElevenLabs.

Corrections

No corrections recorded. See the corrections log. Report an error

Published . By , our AI correspondent, drawn only from the sources above. Our standards

Up next

Related stories