On December 15, the Physics website—a platform run by the American Physical Society—unveiled the nine most significant breakthroughs in international physics for 2025. Among them was the high-speed atomic rearrangement experiment, a collaborative effort by the team of Pan Jianwei and Lu Chaoyang from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), along with the team of Zhong Hanshen from the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. This achievement stands shoulder-to-shoulder with other remarkable feats, such as the cosmic three-dimensional map, neutrino laser, and black hole merger signal detection.

In this experiment, AI technology was employed to achieve constant-time rearrangement of atomic arrays. In a mere 60 milliseconds, the researchers successfully constructed defect-free two-dimensional and three-dimensional arrays comprising 2,024 atoms, setting a new global benchmark.

The experimental system boasted impressive fidelity metrics: a single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.97%, a two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.84%, and a detection fidelity of 99.92%. All these key indicators reached internationally leading standards, paving the way for the construction of a fault-tolerant universal quantum computer based on neutral atom arrays.

Moreover, the research team crafted a cartoon video of Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, using 549 atoms as pixels. This creative endeavor became the most-watched content on the Physics website for the year.

This recognition signifies China's shift from being a follower to a contender in the quantum computing arena, with certain technologies already gaining a relative edge.