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Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have demonstrated fault-tolerant behavior in their 107-qubit Zuchongzhi 3.2 superconducting quantum processor, marking a significant advancement in quantum error correction. This study, published in Physical Review Letters, is the first instance of a research group outside the U.S. achieving this reliability threshold.

The team employed an all-microwave method to control and suppress leakage errors, allowing them to construct a distance-7 surface-code logical qubit. They reported an error-suppression factor of 1.4, indicating that increasing the code size reduced logical errors.

This method could simplify chip packaging and reduce wiring density in quantum systems, addressing challenges faced by existing technologies. However, current demonstrations are still far from the scale required for practical applications, which are expected to need hundreds of thousands to millions of qubits.