"The big goal, the whole driving force, besides deep academic curiosity, is to build a quantum computer out of this," said Professor Rui-Rui Du of Rice University.

"The key for that is whether these 5/2 liquids have 'topological' properties that would render them immune to the sorts of quantum perturbations that could cause information degradation in a quantum computer."

Professor du believes that the 5/2 liquids represent a 'non-Abelian' state of matter.

Abelian processes are commutative -- that is to say that the order of operation does not affect the outcome.

In everyday life, washing and drying clothes is a non-commutative operation.

Washing and then drying produces a different result to drying and then washing -- making it analogous to non-Abelian processes.

"It will take a while to fully understand the complete implications of our results, but it is clear that we have nailed down the evidence for 'spin polarisation,' which is one of the two necessary conditions that must be proved to show that the 5/2 liquids are non-Abelian," Professor Du said.

As the 5/2 liquids are non-Abelian, they have a quantum registry where information doesn't change due to external quantum perturbations.

"In a way, they have internal memory of their previous state," said Professor Du.

Before the technology is commercialised, there are hurdles to be overcome.

The research team spent several years building a demagnetisation refrigerator needed to cool 5-millimetre squares of ultra-pure semiconductors to within one-10,000th of a degree of absolute zero.

Gallium arsenide semiconductors were used in the experiments -- the purest available to the researchers.

Before the technology makes an appearance in desktop computers, researchers will have to find a semiconductor that is feasible for use at room temperature.