Episode
Are We Computing Quantum in the Wrong Base? with Ivan Deutsch
- Published
- Apr 27, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2716
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://newquantumera.transistor.fm/90
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Summary
Every commercial neutral-atom quantum computer today encodes information in just two energy levels of an atom that has many more — strontium has ten nuclear-spin levels, cesium has sixteen. Ivan Deutsch, one of the founding theorists of neutral-atom quantum computing, joins the podcast to ask whether binary is really the right base for quantum computation, and to make the case for spin cat codes: a fault-tolerant encoding that embeds a qubit inside the richer structure of a qudit, the way bosonic cat codes use microwave cavities. Along the way, Ivan traces three decades at UNM — from the earliest days of quantum information science to his role building Elevate Quantum, the only federally designated quantum Tech Hub in the United States.