Majorana 1: Microsoft’s Quantum Chip Inspired by a Visionary Physicist

In an article published last year on EE Times, I underscored the profound impact of Italian physicist Ettore Majorana’s theories on quantum computing (QC). In 1937, amid the conceptual upheaval sparked by quantum mechanics, Majorana postulated the existence of enigmatic particles—now known as Majorana fermions (MFs)—in a paper titled “Teoria simmetrica dell’elettrone e del positrone” (“Symmetric theory of the electron and the positron”). These so-called quasiparticles, emerging in condensed matter systems rather than existing as fundamental particles, have paved the way for a groundbreaking class of qubits. A quasiparticle is a collective phenomenon rather than an individual, free particle.