Superconducting Qubits as Quantum Targets for Direct Particle Scattering

Abstract

We introduce a novel approach to particle detection in which a superconducting qubit itself serves as the scattering target and a resolved transition between circuit eigenstates constitutes the observable final state. The scattering amplitude factorizes into the incident-particle current and a finite-momentum electromagnetic transition response of the qubit. This momentum dependence is essential in that the energy transfer is fixed by the microwave-scale level spacing, whereas a nonrelativistic incident particle can transfer a spatial momentum parametrically larger than that energy and thereby resolve the device geometry. For charge-dominated processes, we recast the response as an induced-offset-charge kernel obtained from an auxiliary electrostatic weighting potential, providing a practical route from circuit geometry to a differential scattering cross section. We illustrate the framework with an Xmon-style transmon and photon-mediated scattering of dark matter. The exceptionally small qubit transition threshold opens sensitivity to an eV-to-keV mass regime that is largely unexplored by existing direct-detection experiments.