Neutron - mirror neutron mixing and neutron stars

Abstract

The oscillation of neutrons $n$ into mirror neutrons $n^{\prime }$, their mass degenerate partners from dark mirror sector, can have interesting implications for neutron stars: an ordinary neutron star could gradually transform into a mixed star consisting in part of mirror dark matter. Mixed stars can be detectable as twin partners of ordinary neutron stars: namely, there can exist compact stars with the same masses but having different radii. For a given equation of state (identical between the ordinary and mirror components), the mass and radius of a mixed star depend on the proportion between the ordinary and mirror components in its interior which in turn depends on its age. If $50\%-50\%$ proportion between two fractions can be reached asymptotically in time, then the maximum mass of such "maximally mixed stars" should be $\sqrt{2}$ times smaller than that of ordinary neutron star while the stars exceeding a critical mass value $M_{NS}^{\max }/\sqrt{2}$ should collapse in black holes after certain time. We evaluate the evolution time and discuss the implications of $n-n^{\prime }$ transition for the pulsar observations as well as for the gravitational waves from the neutron star mergers and associated electromagnetic signals.

18 pages, 6 figures

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• Constraints on Neutron-Mirror-Neutron Oscillation from Neutron Star Cooling
• Neutron-Mirror Neutron conversion in Vacuum, Trap, Material and Neutron Star
• Dineutron decay into sterile anti-neutrinos in neutron stars and its observable consequences
• Neutron-Mirror Neutron oscillations in Matter