Quantum-enhanced Search for Galactic Dark Photons Using Cat-State Cavities

Abstract

We present a quantum-enhanced search for the Galactic dark-photon background (GDPB), a relativistic and anisotropic vector field that can be produced by dark-matter decay or annihilation in the Milky Way halo. We reinterpret an existing quantum-enhanced dark-photon dataset obtained with a superconducting circuit QED platform originally developed for wave-like dark-photon dark-matter searches, consisting of a high-$Q$ niobium cavity in the $\mathrm{TM}_{010}$ mode dispersively coupled to a transmon qubit. By preparing four-component cat states and performing repeated quantum non-demolition parity measurements, analyzed with a hidden Markov model, we extract photon-transition probabilities for multiple cat amplitudes and integration times. The coupling to the GDPB is governed by a polarization- and angle-dependent cavity overlap function, which predicts a distinctive diurnal modulation of the excitation rate for both longitudinal and transverse polarizations. From the absence of such modulation, we set 90\% confidence-level bounds on the kinetic-mixing parameter $ε$ for two benchmark production mechanisms (parametric and cascade decay) over the relativistic mass range $m_X \ll ω_c$.