Hyperonic compact stars with vector portal dark matter

Abstract

The appearance of hyperons in the core of neutron stars generally softens the equation of state (EOS), posing a longstanding challenge to the existence of observed two-solar-mass compact stars. We investigate whether repulsive interactions mediated by a dark-sector vector portal can provide an additional source of high-density pressure and thereby modify the structure of hyperonic compact stars. The baryonic sector is described within the modified quark-meson coupling (MQMC) model, in which the octet baryons are treated as confined relativistic constituent-quark systems interacting self-consistently through the $\sigma$, $\omega$, and $\rho$ fields within a mean field approximation. The dark sector consists of a fermionic dark matter coupled to baryonic matter through a neutral vector mediator $Z^{\prime }$, generating an additional repulsive contribution to the dense-matter EOS. We investigate the resulting equation of state, mass--radius relation, tidal deformability, and moment of inertia. The resulting mass--radius relations satisfy the observational bounds from massive pulsars, including PSR J0740 + 6620, with maximum neutron star masses reaching approximately $2M_{\odot }$. The resulting changes in tidal and rotational observables provide additional avenues for testing the dark-sector interaction through multimessenger observations.

18 pages, 5 figures, regular article