Related papers: Nuclear and dark matter heating in massive white d…
White dwarfs, the most abundant stellar remnants, provide a promising means of probing dark matter (DM) interactions, complimentary to terrestrial searches. The scattering of dark matter from stellar constituents leads to gravitational…
Dark matter that is capable of sufficiently heating a local region in a white dwarf will trigger runaway fusion and ignite a type Ia supernova. This was originally proposed in Graham et al. (2015) and used to constrain primordial black…
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…
This document presents a numerical study of the effects of high density nuclear reactions, pycnonuclear reactions, on the evolution of white dwarfs that accrete matter from a companion star. Primarily we seek observable properties that…
The capture of dark matter, and its subsequent annihilation, can heat old, isolated neutron stars. In order for kinetic heating to be achieved, the captured dark matter must undergo sufficient scattering to deposit its kinetic energy in the…
We show that a star orbiting close enough to an adiabatically grown supermassive black hole (SMBH) can capture weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) at an extremely high rate. The stellar luminosity due to annihilation of captured…
The persistent thermal luminosity of magnetars and their outbursts suggest the existence of some internal heat sources located in their outer crust. The compression of matter accompanying the decay of the magnetic field may trigger…
Compact stellar objects are promising cosmic laboratories to test the nature of dark matter (DM). DM captured by the strong gravitational field of these stellar remnants transfers kinetic energy to the star during the collision. This can…
Interactions with particle dark matter could brighten old, isolated neutron stars to thermal luminosities detectable at current and next-generation telescopes. We present a novel mechanism for such signals. Non-annihilating (e.g.,…
We present an improved treatment for the scattering of heavy dark matter from the ion constituents of a white dwarf. In the heavy dark matter regime, multiple collisions are required for the dark matter to become gravitationally captured.…
White Dwarfs (WD) capture Dark Matter (DM) as they orbit within their host halos. These captured particles may subsequently annihilate, heating the stellar core and preventing the WD from cooling. The potential wells of WDs are considerably…
The first solids that form as a white dwarf (WD) starts to crystallize are expected to be greatly enriched in actinides. Previously [PRL 126, 1311010] we found that these solids might support a nuclear fission chain reaction that could…
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…
Dark kinetic heating of neutron stars has been previously studied as a promising dark matter detection avenue. Kinetic heating occurs when dark matter is sped up to relativistic speeds in the gravitational well of high-escape velocity…
White dwarfs (WDs) are the most promising captors of dark matter (DM) particles in the crests that are expected to build up in the cores of dense stellar clusters. The DM particles could reach sufficient densities in WD cores to liberate…
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…
We examine whether the accretion of dark matter onto neutron stars could ever have any visible external effects. Captured dark matter which subsequently annihilates will heat the neutron stars, although it seems the effect will be too small…
In our galaxy, the white dwarfs (WDs) will inevitably capture the dark matter (DM) particles streaming through them, if there exist interactions between DM particles and nuclei/electrons. At the same time, these DM particles can also be…
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…
Dark matter can capture in neutron stars and heat them to observable luminosities. We study relativistic scattering of dark matter on highly degenerate electrons. We develop a Lorentz invariant formalism to calculate the capture probability…