Physicists hunting for fault-tolerant quantum computing recently built topological superconductors to trap elusive Majorana zero modes, bizarre hybrid particles that literally…

A closer look

Hunting a particle that is its own evil twin sounds like a comic book plot, but it's the holy grail of modern computing. Majorana fermions theoretically act as their own antiparticle. By layering superconductors with magnetic fields, scientists tricked electrons into forming these elusive states at the exact tips of nanowires. Because they are split perfectly at both ends, local environmental noise can't easily destroy their quantum data, paving the way for crash-proof quantum computers.