Pith. sign in

REVIEW 7 cited by

Observing the thermalization of dark matter in neutron stars

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2009.10728 v2 pith:35WHGUE3 submitted 2020-09-22 hep-ph astro-ph.HEastro-ph.SRhep-ex

Observing the thermalization of dark matter in neutron stars

classification hep-ph astro-ph.HEastro-ph.SRhep-ex
keywords darkmatterneutronthermalizationstarsstellarcoreobserving
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
Share X Bluesky LinkedIn Reddit HN
abstract

A promising probe to unmask particle dark matter is to observe its effect on neutron stars, the prospects of which depend critically on whether captured dark matter thermalizes in a timely manner with the stellar core via repeated scattering with the Fermi-degenerate medium. In this work we estimate the timescales for thermalization for multiple scenarios. These include: (a) spin-0 and spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ dark matter, (b) scattering on non-relativistic neutron and relativistic electron targets accounting for the respective kinematics, (c) interactions via a range of Lorentz-invariant structures, (d) mediators both heavy and light in comparison to the typical transfer momenta in the problem. We discuss the analytic behavior of the thermalization time as a function of the dark matter and mediator masses, and the stellar temperature. Finally, we identify parametric ranges where both stellar capture is efficient and thermalization occurs within the age of the universe. For dark matter that can annihilate in the core, these regions indicate parametric ranges that can be probed by upcoming infrared telescopes observing cold neutron stars.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 7 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. A self-consistent single-fluid framework for neutron stars admixed with mirror dark matter

    astro-ph.HE 2026-07 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    Mirror dark matter admixture via mutual mean-field shifts softens the nuclear EOS, raises central densities, lowers maximum masses, and moves the direct Urca onset to higher or lower masses depending on symmetry-energ...

  2. Neutron stars can shine a light on elusive lepton-flavor-violating dark matter

    hep-ph 2025-11 conditional novelty 7.0

    Flavor blocking keeps lepton-flavor-violating dark matter from thermalizing inside neutron stars, so p-wave annihilation stays efficient and heats the star to observable temperatures.

  3. Asymmetric Cannibal Dark Matter: Constraints from Neutron Star

    hep-ph 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    Asymmetric cannibal dark matter with Z3-symmetric 3→2 interactions depletes in neutron star cores, producing observable heating signatures that constrain dark matter parameters beyond standard annihilation models.

  4. High-Energy Neutrinos from Black Hole Evaporation in Neutron Stars

    hep-ph 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    Repeated collapse of asymmetric dark matter inside neutron stars into evaporating microscopic black holes can produce a Galactic-Center-concentrated high-energy neutrino flux at the 10^-12 GeV cm^-2 s^-1 level, subdom...

  5. High-Energy Neutrinos from Black Hole Evaporation in Neutron Stars

    hep-ph 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    Dark matter collapsing inside neutron stars could repeatedly form microscopic black holes whose Hawking evaporation produces a detectable high-energy neutrino flux concentrated toward the Galactic Center.

  6. A Minimal Dark $SU(2)$ Origin of a Massless Dirac Neutrino

    hep-ph 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    A minimal dark SU(2)_D model with anomaly cancellation and Z4 symmetry generates a rank-two Dirac neutrino mass matrix enforcing one exactly massless neutrino.

  7. Probing freeze-in dark matter using Bose-Einstein condensate in neutron star

    hep-ph 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Bose-Einstein condensate formation in neutron stars enhances dark matter annihilation by 10^15-10^20, allowing freeze-in models to produce observable heating and probe neutrino-fog scattering cross-sections.