Related papers: Thermalization and Annihilation of Dark Matter in …
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…
Dark matter (DM) particles in the Universe accumulate in neutron stars (NSs) through their interactions with ordinary matter. It has been known that their annihilation inside the NS core causes late-time heating, with which the surface…
Dark matter can be captured by celestial objects and accumulate at their centers, forming a core of dark matter that can collapse to a small black hole, provided that the annihilation rate is small or zero. If the nascent black hole is big…
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…
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…
Kinetic heating of old cold neutron stars, via the scattering of dark matter with matter in the star, provides a promising way to probe the nature of dark matter interactions. We consider a dark matter candidate that is a Standard Model…
In the current paradigm of cosmic structure formation, dark matter plays a key role on the formation and evolution of galaxies through its gravitational influence. On microscopic scales, dark matter particles are expected to annihilate…
The first stars to form in the Universe may be powered by the annihilation of weakly interacting dark matter particles. These so-called dark stars, if observed, may give us a clue about the nature of dark matter. Here we examine which…
The freeze-out of dark matter (DM) depends on the evolution of the DM temperature. The DM temperature does not have to follow the standard model one, when the elastic scattering is not sufficient to maintain the kinetic equilibrium. We…
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…
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 serve as excellent next-generation thermal detectors of dark matter, heated by the scattering and annihilation of dark matter accelerated to relativistic speeds in their deep gravitational wells. However, the dynamics of…
We identify a largely model-independent signature of dark matter interactions with nucleons and electrons. Dark matter in the local galactic halo, gravitationally accelerated to over half the speed of light, scatters against and deposits…
Recently, Cheng et al. identified a number of massive white dwarfs (WD) that appear to have an additional heat source providing a luminosity near $\approx 10^{-3}L_\odot$ for multiple Gyr. In this paper we explore heating from electron…
We present, for the first time, a complete treatment of strongly-interacting dark matter capture in planets, taking Earth as an example. We focus on light dark matter and the heating of Earth by dark matter annihilation, addressing a number…
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…
We outline two important effects that are missing from most evaluations of the dark matter capture rate in neutron stars. As dark matter scattering with nucleons in the star involves large momentum transfer, nucleon structure must be taken…
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…
Neutron star (NS) is one of the most promising astrophysical targets to probe non-gravitational interaction of dark matter (DM) with visible matter. Their compactness makes them an ideal object which can capture particle DM efficiently over…
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.…