Assessing the quality of a network of vector-field sensors

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how to optimally configure a network of vector-field sensors, specifically magnetometers, to enhance sensitivity and performance, with practical insights for the GNOME project.

Contribution

It introduces a method to quantify network arrangement quality and identifies optimal configurations for vector-field sensor networks, improving sensitivity by reorienting sensor axes.

Findings

Network arrangement quality can be quantified effectively.

Reorienting sensor axes can double the network's sensitivity.

Optimal configurations depend on specific sensor and network characteristics.

Abstract

An experiment consisting of a network of sensors can endow several advantages over an experiment with a single sensor: improved sensitivity, error corrections, spatial resolution, etc. However, there is often a question of how to optimally set up the network to yield the best results. Here, we consider a network of devices that measure a vector field along a given axis; namely for magnetometers in the Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches (GNOME). We quantify how well the network is arranged, explore characteristics and examples of ideal networks, and characterize the optimal configuration for GNOME. We find that by re-orienting the sensitive axes of existing magnetometers, the sensitivity of the network can be improved by around a factor of two.