Related papers: An idea for detecting capture dominated Dark Stars
We revisit the problem of the capture of a primordial black hole (PBH) by a neutron star, accounting for the tidal perturbation from a nearby star or planet. For asteroid-mass PBHs, which could constitute all of the dark matter in the…
A fraction of the dark matter may consist of a particle species that interacts much more strongly with the Standard Model than a typical weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) of similar mass. Such a strongly interacting dark matter…
Neutron stars capture dark matter efficiently. The kinetic energy transferred during capture heats old neutron stars in the local galactic halo to temperatures detectable by upcoming infrared telescopes. We derive the sensitivity of this…
The identity of dark matter is one of the key outstanding problems in both particle and astrophysics. In this thesis, I describe a number of complementary searches for particle dark matter. I discuss how the impact of dark matter on stars…
Although dark matter makes up 80% of the gravitational mass of our Galaxy, its composition is not known. One hypothesis is that dark matter consists of massive particles called WIMPs. WIMPs are expected to accumulate and coannihilate in the…
With new observational facilities becoming available soon, discovering and characterising supernovae from the first stars will open up alternative observational windows to the end of the cosmic dark ages. Based on a semi-analytical merger…
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are a viable candidate for the relic abundance of dark matter (DM) produced in the early universe. So far WIMPs have eluded direct detection through interactions with baryonic matter. Neutrino…
In a close encounter with a neutron star, a primordial black hole can get gravitationally captured by depositing a considerable amount of energy into nonradial stellar modes of very high angular number $l$. If the neutron-star equation of…
If dark matter has a sizable scattering cross section with nucleons, it can efficiently be captured by a neutron star. Its energy is then transferred to the neutron star as heat through the scattering and annihilation inside the star. This…
Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars in the Milky Way (MW) allow us to infer the properties of their progenitors by comparing their chemical composition to the metal yields of the first supernovae. This method is most powerful when applied to…
Semi-analytic treatments of the evolution of orbits of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the solar system suggest that the WIMPs bound to the solar system may enhance the direct detection rate relative to that of the unbound…
The existence of dark matter was suggested, using simple gravitational arguments, seventy years ago. Although we are now convinced that most of the mass in the Universe is indeed some non-luminous matter, we still do not know its…
The current state searches for dark matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) using both direct and indirect techniques is reviewed. Advances in recent years by various direct search experiments, utilising…
Direct detection experiments are poised to detect dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The signals expected in these experiments depend on the ultra-local WIMP density and velocity distribution. Firstly…
The first phase of stellar evolution in the history of the Universe may be Dark Stars, powered by dark matter heating rather than by nuclear fusion. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, which may be their own antipartners, collect inside…
We show that the mere observation of the first stars (Pop III stars) in the universe can be used to place tight constraints on the strength of the interaction between dark matter and regular, baryonic matter. We apply this technique to a…
More and more claims of having detected WIMP dark matter are being put forward. Some are discussed here, stressing the importance of exploiting distinctive signatures to ascertain their WIMP origin. The best signals for WIMP discovery are…
We present a mechanism that may seed compact stellar objects with stable lumps of quark matter, or {\it strangelets}, through the self-annihilation of gravitationally accreted WIMPs. We show that dark matter particles with masses above a…
Direct detection of dark matter with directional sensitivity is a promising concept for improving the search for weakly interacting massive particles. With information on the direction of WIMP induced nuclear recoils one has access to the…
A new Solar System population of Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) dark matter has been proposed to exist. We investigate the implications of this population on indirect signals in neutrino telescopes (due to WIMP annihilations in…