Google quantum AI unlocks a new strange phase of matter

An exotic phase of the material was carried out on a quantum processor.

Material can exist in different forms or phases, such as liquid water or solid ice. These phases are generally understood in balanced conditions, where everything remains stable over time. However, nature also allows much more foreign possibilities: phases that only appear when a system is pushed out of balance. A new study published in Nature Demonstrates that quantum computers provide a new powerful tool to study these unusual states of matter.

Unlike ordinary phases, the undefined quantum phases are defined by the way they change and evolve over time, a type of behavior that cannot be explained by standard equilibrium thermodynamics. A particularly intriguing example occurs in Floquet systems (quantum systems which are motivated in regular and repetitive cycles). This periodic conduct can fully produce new types of order which do not exist under balance conditions, discovering phenomena far beyond what the conventional phases of matter allow.

Using a quantum processor qued superconductor 58, the team of the Munich Technical University (TUM), Princeton UniversityAnd Google Quantum Ai has made a topologically ordered Floch state, a phase that had been theoretically proposed but never observed before. They directly imagined the directed movements characteristic at the edge and developed a new interferometric algorithm to probe the underlying topological properties of the system. This allowed them to see the dynamic “transmutation” of exotic particles – a characteristic which was theoretically predicted for these exotic quantum states.

Quantum computer as a laboratory

“The phases not in imprint unlocked are notoriously difficult to simulate with classic computers,” said the first author Melissa, doctoral student in the physics department of the Tum School of Natural Sciences. “Our results show that quantum processors are not only calculation devices – these are powerful experimental platforms to discover and probe states of all new matter.”

This work opens the door to a new era of quantum simulation, where quantum computers become laboratories to study the large broad and largely unexplored landscape of equilibrium matters. Ideas from these studies could have large -scale implications, understanding fundamental physics to the design of new generation quantum technologies.

Reference: “Topological order unpaid on a quantum processor” by M. Will, Ta Cochran, E. Rosenberg, B. Jobst, Nm Eassa, P. Roushan, M. Knap, A. Gammon-Smith and F. Pollmann, September 10, 2025, Nature.
Two: 10.1038 / S41586-025-09456-3

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