How quantum circuits based on neutral atoms could find and fix errors

Quantum computers, devices that process information by leveraging the laws of quantum mechanics, have been found to outperform classical computers in some advanced tasks. Instead of storing information in the form of classical binary bits (i.e., 0 or 1), quantum computers rely on quantum bits (i.e., qubits), which can also exist in combinations of 0 and 1 states.

Despite their potential, quantum computers are known to be highly prone to errors. This is because qubits are very sensitive to heat, magnetic fields and other changes in their surroundings, which can disrupt the delicate quantum states they rely on to store and process data.

Researchers at Princeton University recently introduced a new approach for developing quantum computers that make fewer errors and whose errors ar...

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JWST captures rare glimpse of early black hole growing inside network of young galaxies

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured one of the clearest views yet of how an early supermassive black hole may grow within a network of young galaxies. The compact active galaxy, seen just a billion years after the Big Bang, lies beside a 12,000-parsec-long filament containing multiple galaxies that are expected to merge within a few hundred million years.

The findings, posted to the arXiv preprint server on July 6, suggest astronomers may be witnessing a short-lived phase in the evolution of rapidly growing black holes while also shedding light on how the first massive galaxies assembled in the early universe.

Too big for its galaxy
Since JWST began operating, astronomers have found a population of compact, actively feeding black holes in galaxies from ...

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Quantum internet leaves the lab with first real-world entanglement over busy telecom fiber

Quantum internet leaves the lab
Entangled photons are distributed over 24.4 km of deployed fiber from Evanston to Chicago. One of the photons is wavelength division multiplexed to propagate with a state-of-the-art classical communications system and optical synchronization clock. BW, bandwidth; EPPS, entangled photon pair source; MUX, wavelength-division multiplexer; OLS Tx (Rx), classical optical line system transmitter (receiver); SNSPD, superconducting nanowire single photon detector; TDC, time-to-digital converter; WR, White Rabbit synchronizer. Credit: Optica Quantum (2026). DOI: 10.1364/opticaq.592786

Quantum information is notoriously fragile. Internet traffic is anything but. Yet Northwestern University scientists have demonstrated they can peacefully coexist inside the same fiber-optic cable.

In a new...

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Jellyfish nebula may be the scene of two stars going supernova

Jellyfish nebula may be the scene of two stars going supernova
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; orange, brown: radio, ESA/Planck and MWISP; yellow: optical, DSS; red: infrared, NASA/WISE; violet: ultraviolet, NASA/Swift; teal: X-rays, SRG/eROSITA; magenta: gamma rays, NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

The star that formed the Jellyfish nebula may have had a partner star that exploded 100,000 years earlier, according to international researchers, who say that this may be the first known discovery of a binary star system in which both stars have gone supernova.

The Jellyfish nebula, known as IC443, is the remnant of a star exploding in a supernova and leaving behind an expanding cloud of debris...

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