Progress on the archival search of the GPS atomic clocks for clumpy dark matter transient signatures

ORAL

Abstract

A network of quantum sensors, such as the network of Rb atomic clocks aboard the Global Positioning System (GPS), have shown to be capable for searching for exotic physics, such as clumpy dark matter (DM). An example of clumpy dark matter of particular interest to our current search is Topological Defect (TD) dark matter, which may take the form of 0D monopoles or Q-balls, 1D strings, or 2D domain walls. For a 2D domain wall, we expect a well defined DM signature in the atomic clock data as the DM wall propagates through the constellation. Using a Bayesian statistical method, a search through the 20 years of archival GPS data for transient dark matter signatures from 2D thin domain walls was performed. A strict $\chi^{2}$ filter, expecting only 1 false positive in 100 years, in conjunction with the signal to noise (SNR) filter was developed to eliminate false positive events arising from poor matching to the bank of DM signal templates. Parameter estimation was performed for each potential DM candidate event, investigating the velocity, and geometry of the DM encounter. Details of these preliminary results from the archival GPS data search will be presented at the conference.

Authors

  • Tyler Daykin

    University of Nevada, Reno

  • Colin Bradley

    University of Nevada, Reno

  • Guglielmo Panelli

    University of Nevada, Reno

  • Kalia Pfeffer

    University of Nevada, Reno

  • Zach Waller

    University of Nevada, Reno

  • Benjamin Roberts

    University of Queensland, Australia

  • Maxim Pospelov

    University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

  • Geoffrey Blewitt

    University of Nevada, Reno

  • Andrei Derevianko

    University of Nevada, Reno