Can neutron stars constrain dark matter?

Journal Article · Wed Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.82.063531· OSTI ID:21421138

Kouvaris, Chris; Tinyakov, Peter ^[1]

---

1. Service de Physique Theorique, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels (Belgium)

Because of their strong gravitational field, neutron stars capture weakly interacting dark matter particles (WIMPs) more efficiently compared to other stars, including the white dwarfs. Once captured, the WIMPs sink to the neutron star center and annihilate, heating the star. We find that this heat could lead to detectable effects on the surface temperature of old neutron stars, especially those in dark-matter-rich regions such as the Galactic center or cores of globular clusters. The capture and annihilation is fully efficient even for WIMP-to-nucleon cross sections (elastic or inelastic) as low as {approx}10{sup -45} cm{sup 2}, and for the annihilation cross sections as small as {approx}10{sup -57} cm{sup 2}. Thus, detection of a sufficiently cold neutron star in a dark-matter-rich environment would exclude a wide range of dark matter candidates, including those with extremely small cross sections.

• OSTI ID: 21421138
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 82, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.82.063531; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANNIHILATION
COLD NEUTRONS
CROSS SECTIONS
DETECTION
GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS
HEATING
NEUTRON STARS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PARTICLES
SURFACES
WEAK INTERACTIONS
WHITE DWARF STARS
BARYONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
DWARF STARS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
INTERACTIONS
MATTER
NEUTRONS
NUCLEONS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
STARS