Related papers: Dark Matter Capture in the First Stars: a Power So…
Understanding the formation of the first stars is one of the frontier topics in modern astrophysics and cosmology. Their emergence signaled the end of the cosmic dark ages, a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, leading to a…
The hypothesis that neutrons might decay into dark matter is explored using neutron stars as a testing ground. It is found that in order to obtain stars with masses at the upper end of those observed, the dark matter must experience a…
The first generation of stars was formed from primordial gas. Numerical simulations suggest that the first stars were predominantly very massive, with typical masses M > 100 Mo. These stars were responsible for the reionization of the…
Neutron stars can provide new insight into dark matter properties, as these dense objects capture dark matter particles very efficiently. It has recently been shown that the energy transfer in the dark matter capture process can lead to…
In the local Universe, star formation is typically inefficient both globally and when considered as the fraction of gas converted into stars per local free-fall time. An important exception to this inefficiency is regions of high…
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) result from stars being gravitationally-scattered into low angular momentum orbits around massive black holes. We show that the short lifetimes of massive Population III stars at high redshifts could…
We study the effects of WIMP dark matter (DM) annihilations on the thermal and chemical evolution of the gaseous clouds where the first generation of stars in the Universe is formed. We follow the collapse of the gas inside a typical halo…
High-precision asteroseismic data provides an excellent opportunity to test theories of stellar evolution and new physics, such as the properties of the dark matter (DM) of the Universe. Here we will show that some models of DM lead to…
Dark matter particles will be captured in neutron stars if they undergo scattering interactions with nucleons or leptons. These collisions transfer the dark matter kinetic energy to the star, resulting in appreciable heating that is…
The fact that dark matter (DM), thus far, has revealed itself only on scales of galaxies and larger, again thrusts onto astrophysics the opportunity and the responsibility to confront the age old mystery "What is the nature of matter?" By…
We numerically study the mutual interaction between dark matter (DM) and Population III (Pop III) stellar systems in order to explore the possibility of Pop III dark stars within this physical scenario. We perform a cosmological simulation,…
If dark matter is made up of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, the annihilation of these particles in halos results in energy being released, some of which is absorbed by gas, causing partial ionization and heating. Dark matter…
Annihilations of weakly interacting dark matter particles provide an important signature for the possibility of indirect detection of dark matter in galaxy halos. These self-annihilations can be greatly enhanced in the vicinity of a massive…
The first bright objects to form in the Universe might not have been "ordinary" fusion-powered stars, but "Dark Stars" (DSs) powered by the annihilation of dark matter (DM) in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). If…
Dark Matter (DM) may be a thermal relic that annihilates into heavier states in the early Universe. This Forbidden DM framework accommodates a wide range of DM masses from keV to weak scales. An exponential hierarchy between the DM mass and…
The first stars are expected to form through molecular-hydrogen (H$_2$) cooling, a channel that is especially sensitive to the thermal and ionization state of gas, and can thus act as a probe of exotic energy injection from decaying or…
An initial state for the observable universe consisting of a finite region with a large vacuum energy will break-up due to near horizon quantum critical fluctuations. This will lead to a Friedmann-like early universe consisting of an…
Paramount among the processes that ended the cosmic `dark ages' must have been the formation of the first generation of stars (the so-called Population III). We summarize recent progress in constraining its nature, and we discuss the basic…
Neutron stars change their structure with accumulation of dark matter. We study how their mass is influenced from the environment. Close to the sun, the dark matter accretion from the neutron star does not have any effect on it. Moving…
We report recent results on the impact of asymmetric dark matter (DM) particles on low-mass stars. First, we found that the small convective core expected in stars with masses between 1.1 and 1.3 Msun is suppressed due to DM cooling.…