Yale physicists have developed an error-correcting cat – a new device that combines the Schrödinger’s cat concept of superposition (a physical system existing in two states at once) with the ability to fix some of the trickiest errors in a quantum computation.

It is Yale’s latest breakthrough in the effort to master and manipulate the physics necessary for a useful quantum computer: correcting the stream of errors that crop up among fragile bits of quantum information, qubits, while performing a task.

A new study reporting on the discovery appears in the journal Nature. The senior author is Michel Devoret, Yale’s F.W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics and Physics...

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spectacular galaxy NGC2442, nicknamed the Meathook galaxy owing to its extremely asymmetrical and irregular shape.

This galaxy was host to a supernova explosion spotted in March 2015, known as SN2015F, that was created by a white dwarf star. The white dwarf was part of a binary star system and siphoned mass from its companion, eventually becoming too greedy and taking on more than it could handle.

This unbalanced the star and triggered runaway nuclear fusion that eventually led to an intensely violent supernova explosion.

The supernova...

Physicists at the University of Göttingen, together with pathologists and lung specialists at the Medical University of Hannover, have developed a 3D imaging technique that enables h...

NASA Hubble Space Telescope images ...