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arXiv:2407.19755 · Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

Search for QCD axion dark matter with transmon qubits and quantum circuit

S. Chen, Hajime Fukuda, Toshiaki Inada, Takeo Moroi, T. Nitta, Thanaporn Sichanugrist

Published Dec 16, 2024• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose a direct axion dark matter (DM) search using superconducting transmon quantum bits (qubits) as quantum sensors. With an external magnetic field applied, axion DM generates an oscillating electric field, which causes the excitation of the qubit. Such an excitation can be regarded as a signal of the axion DM. We provide a theoretical consideration of the excitation process of the qubits, taking into account the effects of the shielding cavity surrounding the qubits, and estimate the signal rate for the axion DM detection. We also discuss the enhancement of the DM signal by using cavity resonance and entangled quantum sensors realized by a quantum circuit. Combining these two effects, we can reach the parameter region suggested by QCD axion models. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.110.115021

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We propose a direct axion dark matter (DM) search using superconducting transmon quantum bits (qubits) as quantum sensors. With an external magnetic field applied, axion DM generates an oscillating electric field, which causes the excitation of the qubit. Such an excitation can be regarded as a signal of the axion DM. We provide a theoretical consideration of the excitation process of the qubits, taking into account the effects of the shielding cavity surrounding the qubits, and estimate the signal rate for the axion DM detection. We also discuss the enhancement of the DM signal by using cavity resonance and entangled quantum sensors realized by a quantum circuit. Combining these two effects, we can reach the parameter region suggested by QCD axion models. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
We propose a quantum sensor network for direct detection of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) axion dark matter using entangled superconducting qubits. In the presence of a static magnetic field, the oscillating axion field induces a coherent qubit rotation described by an encoding angle proportional to the axion-photon coupling and an unknown dark-matter phase. Treating the phase as an additional unknown parameter turns axion detection into a two-parameter quantum estimation problem. We formulate these signals in Cartesian coordinates, thereby avoiding the singularity that arises in the weak-signal regime and establishing a regular framework for multiparameter quantum estimation. Using this framework, we optimize the quantum sensor network and combine it with Bayesian inference to reconstruct the axion-photon coupling. The optimized protocol accurately recovers the KSVZ and DFSZ benchmark couplings over the mass range ma∈[0.1,10] μeVm_a\in[0.1,10]~μ{\rm eV}ma​∈[0.1,10] μeV, generalizes to previously unseen masses, and remains robust against realistic superconducting-qubit decoherence and gate errors.
We propose a novel dark matter detection method utilizing the excitation of superconducting transmon qubits. Assuming the hidden photon dark matter of a mass of O(10) μeVO(10)\ μ{\rm eV}O(10) μeV, the classical wave-matter oscillation induces an effective ac electric field via the small kinetic mixing with the ordinary photon. This serves as a coherent drive field for a qubit when it is resonant, evolving it from the ground state towards the first-excited state. We evaluate the rate of such evolution and observable excitations in the measurements, as well as the search sensitivity to the hidden photon dark matter. For a selected mass, one can reach ε∼10−12−10−14ε\sim 10^{-12}-10^{-14}ε∼10−12−10−14 (where εεε is the kinetic mixing parameter of the hidden photon) with a single standard transmon qubit. A simple extension to the frequency-tunable SQUID-based transmon enables the mass scan to cover the whole 4−40 μeV4-40\ μ{\rm eV}4−40 μeV (1−101-101−10 GHz) range within a reasonable length of run time. The sensitivity scalability along the number of the qubits also makes it a promising platform in accord to the rapid evolution of the superconducting quantum computer technology.
We propose a novel dark matter detection method utilizing the excitation of superconducting transmon qubits. Assuming the hidden photon dark matter of a mass of O(10) μeV, the classical wave-matter oscillation induces an effective ac electric field via the small kinetic mixing with the ordinary photon. This serves as a coherent drive field for a qubit when it is resonant, evolving it from the ground state towards the first-excited state. We evaluate the rate of such evolution and observable excitations in the measurements, as well as the search sensitivity to the hidden photon dark matter. For a selected mass, one can reach ε∼10^{-13}-10^{-12} (where ε is the kinetic mixing parameter of the hidden photon) with a few tens of seconds using a single standard transmon qubit. A simple extension to the frequency-tunable SQUID-based transmon enables the mass scan to cover the range of 4-40 μeV (1-10 GHz) within a reasonable length of run time. The scheme has great potential to extend the sensitivity towards various directions including being incorporated into the cavity-based haloscope experiments or the currently available multibit noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computer machines.
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We report an axion dark matter search with a haloscope equipped with a microwave photon counter. The haloscope is a tunable high quality factor three-dimensional microwave cavity placed in a magnetic field. The photon counter, operated cyclically, maps an incoming microwave photon onto the state of a superconducting transmon qubit. The measurement protocol continuously monitors the power emitted by the haloscope cavity as well as the dark count background and enables tuning of the cavity frequency to probe different axion masses. With this apparatus, we enhance by a factor of 20 the search speed that can be reached with quantum-limited linear amplifiers and set a new standard for probing the existence of axions with resonant detectors above 5 GHz.
Ultralight Majorons are well-motivated dark-matter candidates that can couple to electron spins, generating an oscillating pseudo-magnetic field. We propose a hybrid magnon-qubit haloscope that exploits this interaction to search for Majoron dark matter. In our scheme, the Majoron field resonantly drives the Kittel mode of a ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere, producing a collective magnon response enhanced by the large spin ensemble. The resulting magnon population is transduced to a superconducting transmon qubit through a cavity-mediated dispersive interaction and detected using quantum-nondemolition Ramsey interferometry. Using experimentally demonstrated parameters for magnon-cavity-qubit systems, we derive the Majoron-induced signal, evaluate the projected sensitivity, and analyze the corresponding mass-scan strategy enabled by magnetic-field tuning, benchmarking the projected reach against existing laboratory and astrophysical constraints on the axion/Majoron-electron coupling. Our results establish hybrid magnon-qubit architectures as a promising quantum-sensing platform for searches for Majoron dark matter and, more generally, ultralight bosonic fields coupled to electronic spins.