Nucleon Structure and Strong Interactions in Dark Matter Capture in Neutron Stars

Area of Science:

• Astrophysics
• Nuclear Physics
• Particle Physics

Background:

• Neutron stars are dense objects that can potentially capture dark matter.
• Current models often simplify the complex physics within neutron stars, potentially affecting dark matter capture rate calculations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and incorporate crucial physical effects missing in standard dark matter capture rate evaluations for neutron stars.
• To investigate the impact of nucleon structure and interactions on dark matter capture rates.

Main Methods:

• Inclusion of momentum-dependent hadronic form factors to account for nucleon structure during dark matter scattering.
• Modeling nucleon interactions within the dense neutron star matter, moving beyond the ideal Fermi gas approximation.

Main Results:

• The study reveals that nucleon structure effects, via momentum-dependent form factors, are critical.
• Incorporating nucleon interactions in dense matter significantly alters capture rates compared to ideal gas models.
• These combined effects can suppress the dark matter capture rate by up to three orders of magnitude in the most massive neutron stars.

Conclusions:

• Standard evaluations of dark matter capture rates in neutron stars are incomplete due to missing physics.
• Accurate modeling requires considering nucleon structure and many-body interactions.
• The findings have significant implications for astrophysical searches for dark matter using neutron stars.