2016/07/22 by Marina Cermeño, M. Ángeles Pérez-García, Joseph Silk · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Anisotropy #Astrophysics #Condensed matter physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Neutron star #Nuclear physics #Optics #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Scattering #Thermal conduction #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.SR #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.94.063001
published as Phys. Rev. D 94, 063001 (2016) · 14 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2016/07/22 · openalex publication_date 2016/09/02 · arxiv updated 2017/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We calculate for the first time the phonon excitation rate in the outer crust of a neutron star due to scattering from light dark matter (LDM) particles gravitationally boosted into the star. We consider dark matter particles in the sub-GeV mass range scattering off a periodic array of nuclei through an effective scalar-vector interaction with nucleons. We find that LDM effects cause a modification of the net number of phonons in the lattice as compared to the standard thermal result. In addition, we estimate the contribution of LDM to the ion-ion thermal conductivity in the outer crust and find that it can be significantly enhanced at large densities. Our results imply that for magnetized neutron stars the LDM-enhanced global conductivity in the outer crust will tend to reduce the anisotropic heat conduction between perpendicular and parallel directions to the magnetic field.