‘India has potential to be a global player in quantum matter research’

In the quantum world, there was room for everyone, said Vedika Khemani, associate professor at Stanford University’s physics department. Her view is particularly resonant in the light of a breakthrough with Microsoft unveiling its Majorana 1 chip—a quantum chip made of an entirely new material that used topological qubits to build stable quantum systems.

As problem statements in quantum computing remain in their early stages, Khemani highlighted that there were still vast opportunities for all kinds of groups.

“Even small startups or academic institutions, which are much like startups today, could play a critical role. They run on much smaller budgets and could engage in free-ranging experimentation because the technology is not yet settled,” Khemani told ET during her visit to India.


Khemani, a theoretical physicist who made groundbreaking contributions to non-equilibrium quantum systems, particularly time crystals, believes fundamental physics usually leads to practical impact. However, she acknowledged that the timeline for such breakthroughs was unpredictable. Microsoft’s latest development, which took about 20 years, was a classic example of theory being converted into practicality. A particle such as Majorana had not existed before but theorised about 80 years ago by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana, who had said, ‘Majorana fermions are particles that are their own anti-particles.’

Crystals that feel no heat

The professor’s work, in collaboration with Google’s Quantum AI team, had shown similar progress on time crystals, a new type of many-body phase of matter that could oscillate indefinitely without heating up. Researchers consider this not just a conceptual breakthrough but also a framework for understanding and developing quantum systems or computers.

“For time crystals, the many-body phase of matter allowed us to access new types of phases of matter and probe systems of many quantum particles in completely new regimes,” the 37-year-old Stanford professor explained.

Khemani stressed that research in many-body physics could lead to discovering new phases of matter, such as semiconductors, which fuelled the computing age. In a recent podcast Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella announced that its Majorana 1 chip could pave the way for a functional quantum computer by 2027-2029. But she was cautious about predicting exact timelines, emphasising that while these advancements were promising, there were still fundamental challenges to overcome in quantum error correction and system stability. Khemani had won several fellowships and awards, including the Infosys Science Prize 2024 for Physical Sciences.

India’s way into quantum world

Born and raised in Kolkata, Khemani said India had potential in quantum matter research. “India has brilliant researchers. If the country invests in its potential, it could be a world player. There’s so much talent in universities here that should be tapped and grown,” she said.

However, when it came to hardware and experimental investments, Khemani pointed out that the infrastructure was lacking. Meanwhile, the United States and China had poured billions of dollars into building such devices.

She added that companies such as Google, IBM, and Amazon had large quantum divisions at the fundamental research level. “I don’t see any efforts of that scale in India. On the fundamental theoretical side, there are very good researchers at IISc and even ICTS in Bengaluru,” Khemani told ET.

Despite the current limitations of quantum computing and the small class of problems it could solve, the Stanford professor remained optimistic that just as AI systems had exploded in application, quantum computing’s potential would also be realised in due course. Breakthroughs such as Microsoft’s Majorana-based qubits and Google’s Willow chip, which solved a problem in minutes that would have taken a supercomputer 10 septillion years, demonstrated that quantum computing was inching closer to practical applications, solving at least one piece of the puzzle.