Floating Dark Matter in Celestial Bodies
Abstract
Dark matter (DM) can be captured in celestial bodies after scattering and losing sufficient energy to become gravitationally bound. We derive a general framework that describes the current DM distribution inside celestial objects, which self-consistently includes the effects of concentration diffusion, thermal diffusion, gravity, and capture accumulation. For DM with sufficient interactions, we show that a significant DM population can thermalize and sit towards the celestial-body surface. This floating distribution allows for new phenomenology for DM searches in a wide range of celestial bodies, including the Sun, Earth, Jupiter, Brown Dwarfs, and Exoplanets.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2209.09834,
title = {Floating Dark Matter in Celestial Bodies},
author = {Rebecca K. Leane and Juri Smirnov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.09834},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
20 pages, 6 figures, 100000000000000+ dark matter particles per cm^3 at Earth's surface. v2: expanded appendix B, references added