The Effect of Dark Matter on the First Stars: A New Phase of Stellar Evolution

Abstract

Dark matter (DM) in protostellar halos can dramatically alter the current theoretical framework for the formation of the first stars. Heat from supersymmetric DM annihilation can overwhelm any cooling mechanism, consequently impeding the star formation process and possibly leading to a new stellar phase. The first stars to form in the universe may be ``dark stars''; i.e., giant (larger than 1 AU) hydrogen-helium stars powered by DM annihilation instead of nuclear fusion. Possibilities for detecting dark stars are discussed.

arXiv comment3 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings for First Stars 2007 Conference in Santa Fe, NM, July 2007

References in corpus (1)

• Formation of z ~ 6 quasars from hierarchical galaxy mergers

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