Related papers: Celestial Objects as Dark Matter Colliders
Dark matter (DM) coupled to light mediators has been invoked to resolve the putative discrepancies between collisionless cold DM and galactic structure observations. However, $\gamma$-ray searches and the CMB strongly constrain such…
The Galactic Center hosts the densest known stellar environment in the Milky Way, dominated by the massive black hole Sgr A* and the surrounding nuclear star cluster. Theory predicts that this region should also contain a large population…
With central densities way above the density of atomic nuclei, neutron stars contain matter in one of the densest forms found in the universe. Depending of the density reached in the cores of neutron stars, they may contain stable phases of…
The cold dark matter may be in a meta-stable state and decays to other particles with a very long lifetime. If the decaying products of the dark matter are weakly interacting, e.g. neutrinos, then it would have little impact on…
Recent observations of high-energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei (AGN), NGC 1068 and TXS 0506+056, suggest that cosmic rays (CRs) are accelerated in the vicinity of the central supermassive black hole and high-energy protons and…
Dark matter has been recognized as an essential part of matter for over 70 years now, and many suggestions have been made, what it could be. Most of these ideas have centered on Cold Dark Matter, particles that are predicted in extensions…
Neutrino oscillations are a widely observed and well established phenomenon. It is also well known that deviations with respect to flavor conversion probabilities in vacuum arise due to neutrino interactions with matter. In this work, we…
A simple and elegant mechanism is proposed to resolve the problem of having a light scalar mediator for self-interacting dark matter and the resulting disruption to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at late times by the former's…
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…
This is a pedagogical review of recent results on the interactions of central massive black holes with stars very near them, focused on the black hole in the center of the Milky Way. Table of contents: [1] Introduction [2] Stellar dynamics…
We explore some basic observational consequences of assuming that the dark matter in the Milky Way consists mainly of molecular clouds, and that cosmic rays can penetrate these clouds. In a favoured model of the clouds, this penetration…
Dark matter self-interactions are a well-motivated solution to the core-vs.-cusp and the too-big-to-fail problems. They are commonly induced by means of a light mediator, that is also responsible for the dark matter freeze-out in the early…
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…
If the cosmic dark matter consists of weakly-interacting massive particles, these particles should be produced in reactions at the next generation of high-energy accelerators. Measurements at these accelerators can then be used to determine…
We point out that current and planned telescopes have the potential of probing annihilating Dark Matter (DM) with a mass of O(100) TeV and beyond. As a target for such searches, we propose models where DM annihilates into lighter mediators,…
Neutron stars contain matter in one of the densest forms found in the Universe. This feature, together with the unprecedented progress in observational astrophysics, makes such stars superb astrophysical laboratories for a broad range of…
We investigate the influence of dark matter on hybrid stars. Using a two-fluid approach, where normal and dark matter components interact only gravitationally, we explore how dark matter can trigger the appearance of quark matter in neutron…
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…
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…
We consider the nuclear absorption of dark matter as an alternative to the typical indirect detection search channels of dark matter decay or annihilation. In this scenario, an atomic nucleus transitions to an excited state by absorbing a…