Preserving Quantum Information Through Dynamical Freezing

Cornell physicists find a promising route to maintain coherence in quantum computers as the number of qubits scales up.

Published on Feb. 28, 2026

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

Preserving quantum information is crucial for developing useful quantum computing systems, but interacting quantum systems are chaotic and prone to information loss. Physicists have discovered a phenomenon called dynamical freezing, where quantum systems shaken at precisely tuned frequencies can evade these laws of thermodynamics for an astonishingly long time. Using a new mathematical framework, Cornell researchers have now quantified how long this frozen state can be stabilized, demonstrating it as a promising strategy for maintaining coherence in quantum computers as the number of qubits scales up.

Why it matters

As quantum processors grow larger, preserving coherence becomes dramatically harder, as a single unstable qubit can trigger cascading errors across millions of interacting components. Dynamical freezing offers a way to counteract this quantum chaos and maintain information in large-scale quantum systems.

The details

The researchers used analytical calculations to show that while quantum systems can be driven to maintain information for extremely long periods, potentially approaching the age of the universe, the frozen state is not permanent and will inevitably thermalize through rare quantum processes. The periodic drive at precisely tuned frequencies causes a subtle quantum mechanical cancellation of processes that lead to chaos, acting like "noise-canceling headphones for quantum chaos."

  • The research paper "Floquet Thermalization via Instantons Near Dynamical Freezing" was published on February 27, 2026.

The players

Debanjan Chowdhury

Associate professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University, who led the research.

Haoyu Guo

Bethe/KIC postdoctoral fellow with Cornell's Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics (LAASP) and co-first author of the research paper.

Rohit Mukherjee

Former Fulbright visiting fellow and co-first author of the research paper.

Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›

What they’re saying

“It's like asking, how do you evade the laws of physics from eventually taking over? Imagine that you had a hot cup of coffee that even without a heater stayed hot. Or a block of ice placed on a heater that never melts. Is that even possible? This has been one of the big open problems in the field of quantum many-body systems.”

— Debanjan Chowdhury, Associate professor of physics (Mirage News)

“The system does not stay naturally frozen on its own. Think of a playground swing: If you give it small, well-timed pushes over and over, you can keep its motion controlled in a particular way. Here, the periodic drive is like those regular pushes.”

— Rohit Mukherjee, Former Fulbright visiting fellow (Mirage News)

“Most of the time the system remains stable, but every so often it makes a sudden quantum jump to a different state. Imagine a ball sitting quietly in a valley that unexpectedly shows up in the next valley over - not by rolling uphill, but by passing through the mountain itself, something only quantum physics allows.”

— Haoyu Guo, Bethe/KIC postdoctoral fellow (Mirage News)

What’s next

The researchers say this work is theoretical, but there are huge experimental implications connecting directly to ongoing efforts across different quantum computing platforms. As quantum processors grow larger, preserving coherence becomes dramatically harder, so strategies like dynamical freezing will be crucial for scaling up to millions of interacting qubits in real quantum devices.

The takeaway

This research demonstrates a promising route to maintain coherence in quantum computers as the number of qubits scales up, by leveraging the phenomenon of dynamical freezing to evade the chaotic nature of interacting quantum systems and preserve quantum information for an exceptionally long time.