Paradoxically, environmental noise helps preserve the coherence of a quantum system

Quantum computers promise to lead to major advances in certain areas of complex computing. One of the roadblocks to achieving such dream computers, however, is the fact that quantum phenomena, which take place at the level of atomic particles, can be severely affected by environmental "noise" from their surroundings. In the past, scientists have tried to maintain the coherence of the systems by cooling them to very low temperatures, for example, but challenges remain. Now, in research published in Nature Communications, scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and collaborators have shown, with a three-particle system, that they can use dephasing--a process that normally would reduce the coherence--to paradoxically maintain it.