Probing primordial black holes and dark matter clumps in the Solar System with gravimeter and Global Navigation Satellite Systems networks

We show that the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and gravimeters on Earth and in space can potentially offer the most accurate direct measurement of local density of near-Earth asteroid-mass primordial black holes (PBHs) and dark matter (DM) clumps in the Solar System by means of gravitational influence. Using semianalytical methods and Monte Carlo simulation, this paper revisits the analysis of the trajectories of DM clumps in the Solar System, including both captured objects and hyperbolic trajectories. A link is thus made between the frequency and distance of Earth overflights for a given mass flux, and a direct measure of dark matter clump density in the Solar System. We then model the signature of a close fly-by of a DM object on orbital data from GNSS satellites and gravity measurements from gravimeters. We thus obtain a first assessment of the single probe sensitivity. It paves the way for an exhaustive statistical analysis of 28 years of gravimeters and GNSS data to obtain observational constraints on the density of the PBHs and DM clumps within the Solar System, for the mass range [10 8–10 17]  kg. In addition, our methodology offers a possibility of direct detection in cases where DM clumps are endowed with an additional long-range clump-matter fifth force beyond gravity.