Bounds on Long-lived Dark Matter Mediators from Neutron Stars

Abstract

Neutron stars close to the Galactic center are expected to swim in a dense background of dark matter. For models in which the dark matter has efficient interactions with neutrons, they are expected to accumulate their own local cloud of dark matter, making them appealing targets for observations seeking signs of dark matter annihilation. For theories with very light mediators, the dark matter may annihilate into pairs of mediators which are sufficiently long-lived to escape the star and decay outside it into neutrinos. We examine the bounds on the parameter space of heavy ($\sim$TeV to $\sim$PeV) dark matter theories with long-lived mediators decaying into neutrinos based on observations of high energy neutrino observatories, and make projections for the future. We find that these observations provide information that is complementary to terrestrial searches, and probe otherwise inaccessible regimes of dark matter parameter space.

7 pages, 6 figures (2 sub-figures). Published version on PRD

References in corpus (21)

• Observation and Characterization of a Cosmic Muon Neutrino Flux from the Northern Hemisphere using six years of IceCube data
• WIMP Annihilation and Cooling of Neutron Stars
• Dark Matter Search Results from the Complete Exposure of the PICO-60 C${}_3$F${}_8$ Bubble Chamber
• Compact Stars as Dark Matter Probes
• A mass-dependent density profile for dark matter haloes including the influence of galaxy formation
• The contribution of Fermi-2LAC blazars to the diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino flux
• The Forward Physics Facility: Sites, Experiments, and Physics Potential
• Constraints on Galactic Neutrino Emission with Seven Years of IceCube Data
• Dark matter constraints from box-shaped gamma-ray features
• New Analysis of Neutron Star Constraints on Asymmetric Dark Matter
• Constraints on the ultra-high energy cosmic neutrino flux from the fourth flight of ANITA
• Capture of Leptophilic Dark Matter in Neutron Stars
• Dark Matter Heating vs. Rotochemical Heating in Old Neutron Stars
• Comment on "Multiscatter stellar capture of dark matter"
• Les Houches Lectures on Indirect Detection of Dark Matter
• Neutrinos from captured dark matter annihilation in a galactic population of neutron stars
• Impact of galactic distributions in celestial capture of dark matter
• Solar constraints on captured electrophilic dark matter
• Improved White Dwarves Constraints on Inelastic Dark Matter and Left-Right Symmetric Models
• A Sub-GeV Low Mass Hidden Dark Sector of $SU(2{)}_H\times U(1{)}_X$
• Millicharge Dark Matter Detection with Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

Cited by in corpus (32)

• Bosonic Dark Matter in Light of the NICER Precise Mass-Radius Measurements
• Exploring the distribution and impact of bosonic dark matter in neutron stars
• Thermalization and Annihilation of Dark Matter in Neutron Stars
• Quasi-equilibrium configurations of binary systems of dark matter admixed neutron stars
• Heating Neutron Stars with Inelastic Dark Matter and Relativistic Targets
• X-Ray Constraints on Dark Photon Tridents
• Improved bounds on the bosonic dark matter with pulsars in the Milky Way
• Optimal Celestial Bodies for Dark Matter Detection
• Supramassive dark objects with neutron star origin
• Neutrinos from Earth-Bound Dark Matter Annihilation
• Neutrinos from the Sun can discover dark matter-electron scattering
• Halo-independent bounds on Inelastic Dark Matter
• Troubles mounting for multipolar dark matter
• Hunting for Dark Photon-Photon Tridents
• Strong Constraints on Dark Photon and Scalar Dark Matter Decay from INTEGRAL and AMS-02 data
• Multi-frequency test of dark matter annihilation into long-lived particles in Sirius
• Probing the Dark Matter Capture Rate in a Local Population of Brown Dwarfs with IceCube Gen 2
• Probing Superheavy Dark Matter with Exoplanets
• Effects of Dark Matter on the Spontaneous Scalarization in Neutron Stars
• Search for GeV-scale Dark Matter from the Galactic Center with IceCube-DeepCore
• Neutron Star with Dark Matter Admixture: A Candidate for Bridging the Mass Gap
• Improved Treatment of Bosonic Dark Matter Dynamics in Neutron Stars: Consequences and Constraints
• Super-Kamiokande Strongly Constrains Leptophilic Dark Matter Capture in the Sun
• Sub-keV dark matter can strongly ionize molecular clouds
• Bounds on ALP-Mediated Dark Matter Models from Celestial Objects
• Neutrinos from captured dark matter in galactic stars
• Deep Inelastic Scattering in the Capture of Dark Matter by Neutron Stars
• Supermassive Dark Stars and their remnants as a possible solution to three recent cosmic dawn puzzles
• INTEGRAL, eROSITA and Voyager Constraints on Light Bosonic Dark Matter: ALPs, Dark Photons, Scalars, $B-L$ and $L_i-L_j$ Vectors
• Constraining Fermionic Dark Matter with Galactic Neutron Stars
• Impact of Sub-MeV Dark Matter on the Cooling of Pulsating White Dwarfs
• Constraining Asymmetric DM Properties by Black Hole Formation in Neutron Stars and Population III Stars