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Ultralight dark matter detection with trapped-ion interferometry

Leonardo Badurina1, Diego Blas2,3, John Ellis4,5, and Sebastian A. R. Ellis6

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 092004 – Published 8 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/528c-xs6p

Abstract

We explore how recent advances in the manipulation of single-ion wave packets open new avenues for detecting weak magnetic fields sourced by ultralight dark matter. A trapped ion in a “Schrödinger’s cat” state can be prepared with its spin and motional degrees of freedom entangled and be used as a matter-wave interferometer that is sensitive to the Aharonov-Bohm-like phase shift accumulated by the ion over its trajectory. The result of the spin-motion entanglement is a parametrically enhanced sensitivity to weak magnetic fields as compared with an unentangled ion in a trap. Taking into account the relevant boundary conditions, we demonstrate that a single trapped ion can probe unexplored regions of kinetically mixed dark-photon dark matter parameter space in the 10−15  eV≲mA′≲10−14  eV mass window. We also show how such a table-top quantum device will also serve as a complementary probe of axionlike particle dark matter in the same mass window.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 092004– Published 8 May, 2026
  • Received 21 September 2025
  • Accepted 11 March 2026
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