Topics & People

The research group at Google, led by John Martinis, that focused on building a quantum computer. It was located in Santa Barbara.

An algorithm developed by Peter Shaw that shows how a quantum computer could efficiently factor large numbers, a task that is intractable for classical computers. This has major implications for cryptography.

A scientist who, in the early 1990s, developed a famous factoring algorithm for quantum computers, providing a concrete, real-world problem that a quantum computer could solve, which further legitimized the field.

A renowned physicist who gave a talk about using quantum mechanics for computation (building a quantum computer) that deeply inspired a young John Martinis to pursue this field as his life's work.

The publication by John Martinis and his colleagues that detailed their experimental proof that a macroscopic object (an electrical circuit with a Josephson junction) obeys the laws of quantum mechanics. This is the work for which he won the Nobel Prize.

Materials that exhibit zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields when cooled below a critical temperature. They are a key component of Josephson junctions and superconducting quantum computers.

A device consisting of two superconductors separated by a thin insulating barrier. John Martinis created and used this device in his experiment to demonstrate macroscopic quantum tunneling, and it now forms the basis of many superconducting qubits.

A mathematical description in quantum mechanics of a quantum state of a particle or system. It describes the probability of finding a particle in a given state or location.

A famous thought experiment in quantum mechanics used to illustrate the paradox of quantum superposition at a macroscopic level, which Anthony Leget argued was based on the unproven assumption that macroscopic objects could be in such states.

The central question and topic of John Martinis's 1985 research, which sought to determine if large-scale objects (like an electrical circuit) could exhibit quantum behaviors like tunneling.

A Nobel Prize-winning physicist who posed the foundational question that inspired John Martinis's experiment: 'Do macroscopic objects behave quantum mechanically?'

John Martinis's graduate school advisor at UC Berkeley, who was starting to investigate quantum mechanics in electrical devices.