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Abstract
According to computational mathematician Steve Brierley, whatever the quantum sweet spot turns out to be, it could be more spectacular than anything we can imagine today - if the field is given the time it needs. Some technologies require cooling to near absolute zero, others operate at room temperature. What's more, qubits and their interactions must be robust against errors introduced through the effects of thermal vibrations, cosmic rays, electromagnetic interference and other sources of noise. Research published in 2021 by scientists Craig Gidney at Google in Santa Barbara, California, and Martin Ekerå at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, estimates that breaking state-of-the-art cryptography in 8 hours would require 20 million qubits3.