Microsoft-led team retracts quantum 'breakthrough'

A Microsoft-led team has withdrawn a controversial research paper into quantum computing, published in 2018.

The research claimed to have found evidence of an elusive subatomic particle Microsoft suggested could help the development of more powerful computers.

But it now says mistakes were made.

The journal Nature has published a retraction. And the paper's authors have apologised for "insufficient scientific rigour".

But the company has said it remains confident of its wider efforts on quantum computing.