Errors in quantum computers are an obstacle for their widespread use. But a team of scientists say that, by using an antimony atom and the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment, they could have found a way to stop them.

First proposed in 1935 by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, "Schrödinger's cat" was designed to highlight the physicist's concerns with one interpretation of quantum mechanics—the then relatively new theory that explains how matter behaves at the atomic (and smaller) scale.

UNSW engineers have demonstrated a well-known quantum thought experiment in the real world. Their findings deliver a new and more robust way to perform quantum computations—and they have important implications for error correction,

Features of the famous Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment have been applied in the real world using a single antimony atom embedded in a silicon chip. Surprising as it may seem, the atom has a more complex quantum life than even the theoretical cat manages.

Using famous Schrodinger's cat thought experiment, researchers devise a new silicon quantum chip that is less prone to logical errors.

Quantum mechanics has long been the playground of paradoxes, a field where atoms behave like both waves and particles, and cats are both alive and dead. Now, researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have brought a twist to the famous Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment,