Can Dark Matter explain the Braking Index of Neutron Stars?

Abstract

We explore a new mechanism of slowing down the rotation of neutron stars via accretion of millicharged dark matter. We find that this mechanism yields pulsar braking indices that can be substantially smaller than the standard $n\sim 3$ of the magnetic dipole radiation model for millicharged dark matter particles that are not excluded by existing experimental constraints thus accommodating existing observations.

5 pages

References in corpus (6)

• WIMP Annihilation and Cooling of Neutron Stars
• Reopening the window on charged dark matter
• Constraints on millicharged particles from Planck
• New Phase-coherent Measurements of Pulsar Braking Indices
• The role of reconnection in the pulsar magnetosphere
• What can the braking indices tell us about pulsars' nature?

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Strongly lensed gravitational waves from intrinsically faint double compact binaries - prediction for the Einstein Telescope
• The Dark Energy Star and Stability analysis
• Constraining self-interacting fermionic dark matter in admixed neutron stars using multimessenger astronomy
• Compact stars with a small electric charge: the limiting radius to mass relation and the maximum mass for incompressible matter
• Gravitational waves from dark matter collapse in a star
• Cooling of Neutron Stars admixed with Light Dark Matter: a case study
• Double dark-matter admixed neutron star
• Neutron stars with spin polarized self-interacting dark matter
• Relating Braking Indices of Young Pulsars to the Dynamics of Superfluid Cores
• Neutron stars as probes of dark matter
• Remarks on propagating waves in non-linear vacuum electrodynamics
• Constraints on millicharged particles by neutron stars
• Effective Field Theories for Neutron Stars Physics