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Numerous observations suggest that there exist undiscovered
beyond-the-Standard-Model particles and fields. Because of their unknown
nature, these exotic particles and fields could interact with Standard Model
particles in many different ways and assume a variety of possible
configurations. Here we present an overview of the Global Network of Optical
Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches (GNOME), our ongoing experimental
program designed to test a wide range of exotic physics scenarios. The GNOME
experiment utilizes a worldwide network of shielded atomic magnetometers (and,
more recently, comagnetometers) to search for spatially and temporally
correlated signals due to torques on atomic spins from exotic fields of
astrophysical origin. We survey the temporal characteristics of a variety of
possible signals currently under investigation such as those from topological
defect dark matter (axion-like particle domain walls), axion-like particle
stars, solitons of complex-valued scalar fields (Q-balls), stochastic
fluctuations of bosonic dark matter fields, a solar axion-like particle halo,
and bursts of ultralight bosonic fields produced by cataclysmic astrophysical
events such as binary black hole mergers.
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