Researchers demonstrate universal quantum computing using non-Abelian anyons

Scientists from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, Harvard, Stony Brook University and Quantinuum have experimentally verified that non-Abelian anyons can deliver all operations required for universal quantum computing. Using 54 qubits on Quantinuum’s H2 trapped-ion processor, they generated anyons linked to the S3 symmetry and employed both braiding and fusion to construct a complete gate set.

This approach overcomes the limitations of braiding alone, which previous 2024 experiments could not surmount. The researchers also demonstrated that topological operations can directly produce a magic state, potentially eliminating the expensive distillation step in standard error-correction schemes. While active error correction was not yet implemented, the results constitute a proof-of-principle for fault-tolerant quantum machines based on anyonic codes. Future work will focus on integrating these operations with full error-correction protocols.