Google's Willow chip cuts magic state errors 40-fold, a step toward practical quantum computing

Google Quantum AI researchers published a study in Science describing a technique called cultivation, which supplies magic states needed for non-Clifford gates more cheaply than standard distillation. Using 54 of the Willow chip's 105 physical qubits, the team encoded a rough magic state, measured whether it was correct, then spread passing states across more qubits. Errors fell roughly 40-fold, from about four faulty states per 1,000 to roughly one error in 10,000 attempts. Duke Quantum Center director Kenneth Brown, not involved in the study, said cultivation works in practice but discards 92 percent of attempts.

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