Related papers: Can Neutron stars constrain Dark Matter?
We show that a star orbiting close enough to an adiabatically grown supermassive black hole can capture a large number of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) during its lifetime. WIMP annihilation energy release in low- to…
Dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles is predicted to become gravitationally captured and accumulate in stars. While the subsequent annihilations of such particles lead to the injection of energy into stellar…
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…
It has been argued that the existence of old neutron stars excludes the possibility of non-annihilating light bosonic dark matter, such as that arising in asymmetric dark matter scenarios. If non-annihilating dark matter is captured by…
We show that self-annihilating neutralino WIMP dark matter accreted onto neutron stars may provide a mechanism to seed compact objects with long-lived lumps of strange quark matter, or strangelets, for WIMP masses above a few GeV. This…
Recent observational results for the masses and radii of some neutron stars are in contrast with typical observations and theoretical predictions for "normal" neutron stars. We propose that their unusual properties can be interpreted as the…
We explore the multi-scatter capturing of the massive dark matter (DM) particle inside the neutron star via a momentum-dependent dark matter-nucleon scattering cross-section. We find that the capturing enhanced for the positive velocity and…
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…
Neutron stars contain a significant number of stable muons due to the large chemical potential and degenerate electrons. This makes them the unique vessel to capture muonphilic dark matter, which does not interact with other astrophysical…
What if the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section is too small to be detected by direct detection experiments? It is well known in the literature that some interactions lead to dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections that can…
Neutron stars are attractive places to look for dark matter because their high densities allow repeated interactions. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) may scatter efficiently in the core or in the crust of a neutron star. In…
We discuss the consequences of the accretion of dark matter (DM) particles on compact stars such as white dwarfs and neutron stars. We show that in large regions of the DM parameter space, these objects are sensitive probes of the presence…
Recent observations of neutron star masses close to the maximum predicted by nucleonic equations of state begin to challenge our understanding of dense matter in neutron stars, and constrain the possible presence of quark matter in their…
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…
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…
Neutron stars are some of the densest manifestations of massive objects in the universe. They are ideal astrophysical laboratories for testing theories of dense matter physics and provide connections among nuclear physics, particle physics…
In many cosmologies dark matter clusters on sub-kiloparsec scales and forms compact subhalos, in which the majority of Galactic dark matter could reside. Null results in direct detection experiments since their advent four decades ago could…
White dwarfs and neutron stars are stellar objects with masses comparable to that of our sun. However, as the endpoint stages of stellar evolution, these objects do not sustain any thermonuclear burning and therefore can no longer support…
White dwarfs and neutron stars are far-reaching and multi-faceted laboratories in the hunt for dark matter. We review detection prospects of wave-like, particulate, macroscopic and black hole dark matter that make use of several exceptional…
The existence of old neutron stars deeply constrains self-interacting fermion dark matter, which can form star-killing black holes. We quantify this constraint on dark matter-nucleon scattering, considering collapse scenarios that broaden…