An idea for detecting capture dominated Dark Stars

Abstract

I discuss an idea which could lead to a methodology for testing the effects of WIMP DM scattering and capture onto primordial stars. It relies on the effects of "life-prolongation" of affected Population III stars, that can slow down nuclear reactions by supporting their own structure with the energy produced by annihilating DM captured inside the star. This can lead to an alteration of the Pair Production SuperNova rate, which could constitute a peculiar signature of the existence of capture Dark Stars.

Proceedings of GGI 2009 conference on Dark Matter, to appear in Nuc.Phys.B

References in corpus (4)

• Dark matter and the first stars: a new phase of stellar evolution
• Dark Matter Capture in the First Stars: a Power Source and Limit on Stellar Mass
• Dark stars: Implications and constraints from cosmic reionization and extragalactic background radiation
• Effects of dark matter annihilation on the first stars