MilestoneHardwareConfirmed
Researchers retract a 2018 Nature paper on signs of Majorana particles
Mar 8, 2021
A team led by Leo Kouwenhoven at QuTech in Delft retracts its 2018 Nature paper, which reported conductance signals read as evidence of Majorana zero modes. A re-analysis, prompted by two outside physicists, showed the data could no longer support that claim.
Why it matters
Majorana zero modes are the basis of the "topological" qubits Microsoft is pursuing, and this work came from a Microsoft-backed lab in Delft.
Leo Kouwenhoven · Sergey Frolov · Vincent Mourik · QuTech · Microsoft
Related
Sources (3)
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Nature
Retraction Note: Quantized Majorana conductance
“We can therefore no longer claim the observation of a quantized Majorana conductance, and wish to retract this Letter.”
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QuTech
Retraction Nature article Quantized Majorana conductance
“The authors of the 2018 article Quantized Majorana conductance have retracted this article. The authors were alerted to problems by two scientists in the same research area and then went on to re-examine their earlier measurements.”
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Physics World
Retraction of Nature paper puts Majorana research on a new path
“Four years later, Microsoft set up the Microsoft Quantum Lab at TU Delft in 2016, with Kouwenhoven as its director. In 2018 he and his team published the paper in Nature claiming to have detected the Majorana quasiparticle in an extremely thin semiconductor nanowire covered by a superconducting layer.”
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