A groundbreaking achievement was recently made in the field of quantum computing, when researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China, located in Hefei – capital of East China's Hefei province – successfully entangled a record-breaking number of quantum bits, or qubits, inside a quantum computer.

The term entanglement refers to the phenomenon where changing the property of one quantum particle automatically changes the same property of another particle that it's entangled with.

In the late 1980s, researchers managed to entangle three or four particles of light in a more complex way. Recent advancements have seen up to 27 qubits entangled in quantum computers.

Pan Jianwei, Zhu Xiaobo, Peng Chengzhi and their team at the University of Science and Technology of China worked with Yuan Xiao from Peking University to surpass that number by entangling 51 qubits.

The research results were published in the international science journal Nature on July 12.
The researchers utilized the Zuchongzhi quantum computer, which previously demonstrated the ability to solve complex problems at a speed that researchers claimed had achieved quantum supremacy over conventional supercomputers.

The Zuchongzhi computer was developed by QuantumCTek Co Ltd, based in the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone – located in Hefei – and the zone has to date attracted nearly 20 core quantum technology companies and over 30 upstream and downstream enterprises in the quantum field.