Search for Millicharged Dark Matter with Trapped-Ion Quantum Processor

ORAL

Abstract

Fractionally charged particles, including millicharged dark matter, are well-motivated extensions to the Standard Model. We present a search for heavy millicharged relics using the observed motion of a chain of trapped ions as a detector. Our method surpasses the alternative performance of room temperature single-ion detectors by several orders of magnitude by mapping the motion of multiple ions to individual spins using quantum information protocols to reduce systematic effects. Trapped ions offer a unique advantage with their low energy threshold, allowing detection of extremely cold millicharged particles that have thermalized with the Earth and accumulated over billions of years. This enables exploration of regions in the mass-charge parameter space that would otherwise be inaccessible.

*This work is supported by the NSF STAQ program; the NSF QIS program; the NSF QLCI program; the DOE Quantum Systems Accelerator; the AFOSR MURIs on Dissipation Engineering in Open Quantum Systems, Quantum Measurement/Verification, and Quantum Interactive Protocols; and the ARO MURI on Modular Quantum Circuits.

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Presenters

  • Or Katz

    • Duke Quantum Center and Department Electrical and Computer Engineering (and Physics), Duke University, Durham, NC
    • Duke University

Authors

  • Or Katz

    • Duke Quantum Center and Department Electrical and Computer Engineering (and Physics), Duke University, Durham, NC
    • Duke University

  • Itay M Bloch

    • Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.
    • University of California at Berkeley

  • Lei Feng

    • Duke Quantum Center and Department Electrical and Computer Engineering (and Physics), Duke University, Durham, NC
    • JQI/QuICS/UMD Physics, DQC/Duke ECE

  • Harikrishnan Ramani

    • Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

  • Peter Graham

    • Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
    • Stanford University

  • Dmitry Budker

    • Johannes Gutenberg University and UC Berkeley

  • Marko Cetina

    • Duke Quantum Center and Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC
    • JQI/QuICS/UMD Physics, DQC/Duke ECE
    • Duke University

  • Christopher R Monroe

    • Duke Quantum Center and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (and Physics), Duke University, Durham, NC; IonQ, Inc., College Park, MD
    • -Duke Quantum Center and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (and Physics), Duke University, Durham, NC; IonQ, Inc., College Park, MD
    • Duke University