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An illustration of a quantum computer
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Quantum computers could run more quickly if they contained tiny quantum refrigerators.
Quantum computers process information using quantum bits, or qubits, which must be reset to a special state between running programs. Teruaki Yoshioka at the Tokyo University of Science says slow reset times can become a real computational bottleneck, especially if they are slower than the speed of operations of a quantum computer.
He and his colleagues have devised a way to make this resetting process shorter by using a nano-sized quantum circuit refrigerator …