Neutron stars at the dark matter direct detection frontier
Abstract
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 probe in the framework of effective operators. For dark matter heavier than a GeV, we find that neutron star heating can set limits on the effective operator cutoff that are orders of magnitude stronger than possible from terrestrial direct detection experiments in the case of spin-dependent and velocity-suppressed scattering.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States); University of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1420033
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1498887
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0008541; PHY-1417118
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review D
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Physical Review D Journal Volume: 97 Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; dark matter; optical, UV, & IR astronomy; particle dark matter; sky surveys
Citation Formats
Raj, Nirmal, Tanedo, Philip, and Yu, Hai-Bo. Neutron stars at the dark matter direct detection frontier. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043006.
Raj, Nirmal, Tanedo, Philip, & Yu, Hai-Bo. Neutron stars at the dark matter direct detection frontier. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043006
Raj, Nirmal, Tanedo, Philip, and Yu, Hai-Bo. Fri .
"Neutron stars at the dark matter direct detection frontier". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043006.
@article{osti_1420033,
title = {Neutron stars at the dark matter direct detection frontier},
author = {Raj, Nirmal and Tanedo, Philip and Yu, Hai-Bo},
abstractNote = {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 probe in the framework of effective operators. For dark matter heavier than a GeV, we find that neutron star heating can set limits on the effective operator cutoff that are orders of magnitude stronger than possible from terrestrial direct detection experiments in the case of spin-dependent and velocity-suppressed scattering.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043006},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 4,
volume = 97,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {2}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043006
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043006
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Cited by: 55 works
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