2014/03/31 by M. Ángeles Pérez-García, M. Angeles Perez-Garcia, Joseph Silk +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark energy #Dark matter #Light dark matter #Limit (mathematics) #Neutron star #Nuclear matter #Nuclear physics #Nucleon #Particle physics #Physics #Range (aeronautics) #Scalar field dark matter #Stars #astro-ph.SR #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2015.03.026
published as Physics Letters B 744 (2015)13-17 · 6 pages, 1 figure, matches published version
openalex publication_date 2015/03/18 · arxiv created 2015/04/07 · arxiv updated 2015/04/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The amount of decaying dark matter, accumulated in the central regions in neutron stars together with the energy deposition rate from decays, may set a limit on the neutron star survival rate against transitions to more compact objects provided nuclear matter is not the ultimate stable state of matter and that dark matter indeed is unstable. More generally, this limit sets constraints on the dark matter particle decay time, τχ. We find that in the range of uncertainties intrinsic to such a scenario, masses (mχ/TeV)≳9×10−4 or (mχ/TeV)≳5×10−2 and lifetimes τχ≲1055s and τχ≲1053s can be excluded in the bosonic or fermionic decay cases, respectively, in an optimistic estimate, while more conservatively, it decreases τχ by a factor ≳1020. We discuss the validity under which these results may improve with other current constraints.