Search for transient ultralight dark matter signatures with networks of
  precision measurement devices using a Bayesian statistics method
  We analyze the prospects of employing a distributed global network of
precision measurement devices as a dark matter and exotic physics observatory.
In particular, we consider the atomic clocks of the Global Positioning System
(GPS), consisting of a constellation of 32 medium-Earth orbit satellites
equipped with either Cs or Rb microwave clocks and a number of Earth-based
receiver stations, some of which employ highly-stable H-maser atomic clocks.
High-accuracy timing data is available for almost two decades. By analyzing the
satellite and terrestrial atomic clock data, it is possible to search for
transient signatures of exotic physics, such as "clumpy" dark matter and dark
energy, effectively transforming the GPS constellation into a 50,000km aperture
sensor array. Here we characterize the noise of the GPS satellite atomic
clocks, describe the search method based on Bayesian statistics, and test the
method using simulated clock data. We present the projected discovery reach
using our method, and demonstrate that it can surpass the existing constrains
by several order of magnitude for certain models. Our method is not limited in
scope to GPS or atomic clock networks, and can also be applied to other
networks of precision measurement devices.
