Modern quantum computers bear more than a passing resemblance to dark matter detectors. This is not a coincidence as both manipulate and process information stored as tiny amounts of energy and both must therefore be well-protected from mundane environmental disturbances. In this talk I will explain how qubits and quantum computers can themselves be used as ultrasensitive detectors of forces exerted by ambient galactic dark matter streaming through the devices. A dark matter experiment would then consist of a continuously running quantum error correcting code which identifies and corrects glitches due to dark matter interactions. The dark matter events can be identified via various spatial topologies including single qubit or qRAM upsets, tracks of correlated errors, or catastrophic events which wipe out all quantum data over large areas of the qpu. Similar techniques can be used to search for thermal dark radiation predicted from the slow roll of the dark energy scalar field as the universe enters its new epoch of cosmic inflation.
Host: Helen Caines (helen.caines@yale.edu)