• Accepted Paper

Coherent collective response in many-qubit systems for dark matter detection

Ryuichiro Kitano and Ryoto Takai

Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 3 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vztf-s6t6

Abstract

We propose an array of Ramsey-type interferometers using N superposition states, (|0⟩+|1⟩)⊗N, as a sensor to detect wave-like dark matter. After exposure to the dark matter wave, which induces coherent qubit transitions, the signal is the imbalance between the numbers of 0 and 1 outcomes. The signal-to-noise ratio in this scheme is proportional to Nα2, where α is the coupling of dark matter to the qubits, and thus the sensitivity to the coupling scales as δα∼1/N. For comparison, in the detection scheme based on the Rabi-type transition, |0⟩→|1⟩, this scaling is achieved only when N highly entangled qubits are used. Since the Ramsey-type measurement does not require entangled states, one can consider much larger N by simply placing a large number of qubits within the de Broglie wavelength of the dark matter. We show that, using trapped-ion qubits in linear Paul traps as the sensor, the projected sensitivity to the coupling can match or surpass existing laboratory, astrophysical, and cosmological bounds for N≳106–108. We also evaluate its sensitivity to high-frequency gravitational waves. Our general framework should, in principle, be useful for other quantum sensing platforms.

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