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arXiv:2511.03630

Annual-modulation fingerprint of the axion wind induced sideband triplet in quantum dot spin qubit sensors

Xiangjun Tan, Zhanning Wang

quant-phhep-phSubmitted Nov 5, 2025• Announced Nov 6, 2025
v1 · Nov 5, 2025v2 · Dec 9, 2025
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose a phase-coherent, narrowband magnetometer for searching couplings between axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) and electron spins, using gate-defined silicon quantum-dot spin qubits. With repeated Ramsey echo sequences and dispersive readout, the qubit precession response can be tracked with sub-Hz spectral resolution. The accessible axion mass window is determined using a series of filtering protocols that take into account sensing noise, including readout errors and $1/f$ noise. We demonstrate clear evidence of sidereal modulation of the signal due to Earth's rotation, while Earth's orbital motion produces an annual amplitude envelope that generates sidebands at fixed frequency spacing $\pm Ω_\oplus$ around the sidereal component. For axion masses between $1$-$10~μ{\rm eV}$, the proposed method covers axion-electron coupling strengths $g_{ae}$ ranging from $10^{-14}$ to $10^{-10}$. Including both daily and annual modulation patterns in the likelihood analysis enhances the rejection of stationary or instrumental noise. Our results indicate that spin-qubit magnetometry can achieve sensitivities approaching those suggested by astrophysical considerations, providing a complementary, laboratory-based probe of axion-electron interactions. Although we focus on silicon spin-qubit architectures, the approach is broadly applicable to spin-based quantum sensors.

DOI
10.1103/886r-126m

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We propose a phase-coherent, narrowband magnetometer for searching couplings between axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) and electron spins, using gate-defined silicon quantum-dot spin qubits. With repeated Ramsey echo sequences and dispersive readout, the qubit precession response can be tracked with sub-Hz spectral resolution. The accessible axion mass window is determined using a series of filtering protocols that take into account sensing noise, including readout errors and 1/f1/f1/f noise. We demonstrate clear evidence of sidereal modulation of the signal due to Earth's rotation, while Earth's orbital motion produces an annual amplitude envelope that generates sidebands at fixed frequency spacing ±Ω⊕\pm Ω_\oplus±Ω⊕​ around the sidereal component. For axion masses between 111-10 μeV10~μ{\rm eV}10 μeV, the proposed method covers axion-electron coupling strengths gaeg_{ae}gae​ ranging from 10−1410^{-14}10−14 to 10−1010^{-10}10−10. Including both daily and annual modulation patterns in the likelihood analysis enhances the rejection of stationary or instrumental noise. Our results indicate that spin-qubit magnetometry can achieve sensitivities approaching those suggested by astrophysical considerations, providing a complementary, laboratory-based probe of axion-electron interactions. Although we focus on silicon spin-qubit architectures, the approach is broadly applicable to spin-based quantum sensors.
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The search for the axion like particles (APLs)-one of the deepest puzzles in modern cosmology-may hold the key to understanding dark matter and dark energy. In this work, we introduce a setup taking advantage of the quantum metrology techniques to constrain the hypothetical mass and coupling constants of APLs by employing exotic pseudoscalar spin-spin interactions between fermions mediated by ALPs. A key advantage of our approach is the exploitation of position-dependent spin sensor results to the high sensitivity of the probe. To simultaneously investigate the axion mass and coupling constants, we invoke a multi-probe detection strategy. Through this strategy, we circumvent the singularity of the quantum Fisher information matrix as an ultimate upper bound on the sensitivity of any probe. For the axion masses in the range of ma≤10−3eVm_a {\le} 10^{-3} \text{eV}ma​≤10−3eV, this setup can exclude values of axion coupling constants gpegpng^e_pg^n_pgpe​gpn​ down to 10−710^{-7}10−7.
Quantum phase measurements offer a complementary route to axion searches. We show that axion-photon interactions can imprint both Aharonov-Bohm (AB) and Berry phases in experimentally motivated quantum setups. For a coherently oscillating axion dark matter background, the induced effective current generates a time dependent magnetic flux in an rf-SQUID, leading to a measurable voltage signal through the Josephson phase. For representative benchmarks, this AB phase search reaches the minimum axion-photon coupling gaγγmin∼7.8×10−14 GeV−1g_{aγγ}^{\mathrm{min}}\sim 7.8\times10^{-14}~\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}gaγγmin​∼7.8×10−14 GeV−1 at axion mass ma∼10−10 eVm_a\sim 10^{-10}~\mathrm{eV}ma​∼10−10 eV, with projected sensitivity that can improve on existing limits in that parameter space by roughly one to two orders of magnitude. We also identify a geometric phase observable in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an adiabatically rotating magnetic field, providing a proof-of-principle phase-based probe of meV-scale axions even when they do not constitute the dark matter, although sensitivity on the coupling remains weaker than current bounds with conservative tabletop benchmarks. Extending the analysis to a three level photon-axion quasiparticle (AQP)-axion system, with the AQP realized in a topological magnetic insulator, we find a potentially measurable THz Berry phase dominated by the AQP sector, furnishing a nontrivial validation of the formalism in a richer coupled system. These setups establish quantum phase observables as a useful new framework for axion searches, with immediate phenomenological promise in superconducting circuits and longer term potential in quantum enhanced interferometry.