Millikelvin
One thousandth of a Kelvin. The operating temperature of superconducting quantum computers and the name of this publication.
A millikelvin (mK) is 0.001 Kelvin, or one thousandth of a degree above absolute zero. Absolute zero (0 Kelvin, -273.15 Celsius) is the theoretical temperature at which all thermal motion stops.
15 mK is the operating temperature of most superconducting quantum computers. At this temperature, colder than the cosmic microwave background radiation of deep space, certain metals become superconducting and quantum effects can be preserved long enough to compute with.
The Kelvin scale was established by Lord Kelvin in 1848. The millikelvin range was first consistently reached by dilution refrigerators developed in the 1960s, with cryogenic research at NIST Boulder contributing significantly to the precision measurement techniques used to verify and control temperatures at this scale.
The Millikelvin is named for this temperature. The Colorado quantum ecosystem is primarily built around neutral atom and trapped ion technologies, which do not require millikelvin temperatures, but the operating temperature of superconducting systems (the most widely known quantum computing approach) is a useful anchor for the broader field that the publication covers. Maybell Quantum in Denver sells exactly the equipment needed to reach this temperature.