Which QuTech qubit type are you?

by QuTech blog editors

For those who have always wondered: find out which qubit type your personality fits best by responding to the questions below and keeping track of your answers!

1. Do you like to be in charge?

Yes: A, C

No: B, D, E

2. Do you think “light”-ly about quantum memories?

Yes: D

No: A, B, C, E

3. Just like Voldemort in Harry Potter, would you split up your soul into two to make it harder to kill you?

Yes: E

No: A, B, C, D

4. In your current profession, are you mainly a communicator or more of a thinker?

A communicator: C, D

A thinker: A, B, E

5. Do you like expensive jewelry?

Yes: C

No: A, B, E

6. Unfortunately, ageing increases your chances to suffer from:

Memory loss (leakage): B, E

Trembling (decoherence): A, C

Only sitting indoors and not wanting to come out again: D

7. If you stand in a queue, which word describes you better?

Array: A

Chain: C, D, E

8. Do you need a powerful refrigerator to survive the hot summer days?

Definitely: B, E

Not necessarily: C

9. When deciding a pattern for your clothing, would you prefer squares, diamonds, or a braided pattern?

Squares: B

Diamond: C

Braided: E

10. Do you require a lot of living space?

Yes: B, D

No: A, C, E

11. Do you sometimes find yourself at zero energy?

Yes: E

No: A, B, C, D

12. What is your favourite animal?

Squid: B

Spider: E

Magpie: A, C

Pokemon: not B

Polar(ized) bear: C, D

13. Do you move slow or fast?

Slow: C

Medium: A

Fast: B

14. In your free time, do you prefer sports or music?

Sports, especially spinning: A, C

Music. My favourites are playing in an ensemble or conducting: B, D

I don’t have free time. I’ve got so many things to do that I wish I could be in two places at the same time: E

15. Do you like going to the sauna, taking a thermal bath?

Absolutely not: A, B, C, D, E

Your answers:

Mostly A.
You are a quantum dot: a confined electron (which has negative charge!) whose spin is used as a qubit. As an electron, you are really small. You operate best at cold temperatures (below -272 degrees Celsius). When you are put together in an array with other quantum dots, you are collectively able to perform large quantum computations. One of the reasons you don’t do your job perfectly, is that your state changes over time, a process called ‘decoherence’. Among the other qubit types, you’re not the fastest, but not the slowest either. Your harness partially consists of gold, so beware of thieves!

Mostly B.
You are a superconducting qubit, for example a transmon or a starmon. Although your name might be mistaken by some to be a pokemon, you will be more often referred to as ‘squid’ (a small circuit which has a square shape). You have managed to team up with more other qubits (>50 already) in some experiments than other qubits, allowing you to be part of big quantum computations. You are a really fast worker, but this has the downside that you burn out more quickly than other qubits. The main reason for that is that you actually start working on other tasks (occupying other energy levels) than you should really be doing. You are fairly big compared to the other qubit types. ‘Super’ is in your name, so who would doubt you are cooler than the other qubits?

Mostly C.
You are a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond (a charged spin system). You couple well to photons, which makes it easy for you to communicate with other NV centers. In particular, when chaining many of you together, you will be able to talk over long distances. You don’t need to be as cold as some of the others to do your job (sometimes room temperature is even fine!) but then again, you are often slower than them at work. Since you are found in diamond, you could be worn on a ring or necklace. Probably none of the other qubit types will ever be able to say that!

Mostly D.
You are an atomic-ensemble quantum memory, particularly good at storing particles of light. You cannot store this for as long as some of the other qubits, but hey, you can store many of them at the same time. Not only do you consist of many atoms, you are also a real team player with others: by chaining up together with many other atomic-ensemble memories, you could communicate over large distances. In the future, you might even be able to talk to other qubits! Some of you never have a bad-hair-day, because they always carry around an atomic-frequency comb. Not to be mistaken with a musical ensemble: you often sing out of tune. But, when you do sing in tune after a while, a lot (photonic) energy is released!

Mostly E:
You are a qubit-in-spe, made out of topologically protected materials. You consist of two majorana particles, and can be found at the top of a chain of spikes. By having split up your identity into two, you are in theory protected against unwanted behaviour. Not to be confused with ‘tropological qubits’, you actually don’t like hot temperatures. In your free time, you like braiding your hair, a skill you are convinced that anyon(e) can learn.

Quiz by the editors of the QuTech blog, with help from Antariksha Das. Cover photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash