Google Quantum AI Cuts Magic State Errors 40-Fold on a Superconducting Chip

Magic state cultivation on a superconducting quantum processor

Fault-tolerant quantum computing needs non-Clifford gates, which are costly under most error-correction schemes. Emma Rosenfeld, Craig Gidney and colleagues experimentally demonstrate magic state cultivation on a superconducting processor, including code-switching into a surface code and a fault-tolerant measurement protocol that bounds state fidelity. Cultivation reduces error by a factor of 40, reaching 0.9999(1) fidelity while retaining 8% of attempts — establishing cultivation as a practical alternative to distillation.