2021/05/31 by Cosmin Ilie, Caleb Levy
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Massive compact halo object #Milky Way #Physics #Population #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #White dwarf #astro-ph.CO #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.104.083033
published as Phys. Rev. D 104, 083033 (2021) · 49 pages, 14 figures, Version Accepted in PRD; Minor changes, including outlining assumptions of the formalism
openalex publication_date 2021/10/27 · arxiv created 2021/11/03 · arxiv updated 2021/11/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In recent years, the usefulness of astrophysical objects as dark matter (DM) probes has become more and more evident, especially in view of null results from direct-detection and particle-production experiments. The potentially observable signatures of DM gravitationally trapped inside a star, or another compact astrophysical object, have been used to forecast stringent constraints on the nucleon--dark matter interaction cross section. Currently, the probes of interest are at high redshifts, Population III (Pop III) stars that form in isolation or in small numbers, in very dense DM minihalos at z\ensuremath∼15--40, and, in our own Milky Way, neutron stars, white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, exoplanets, etc. None of these objects are truly single component and, as such, capture rates calculated with the common assumption made in the literature of single-component capture, i.e., capture of DM by multiple scatterings with one single type of nucleus inside the object, are not accurate. In this paper, we present an extension of this formalism to multicomponent objects and apply it to Pop III stars, thereby investigating the role of He in the capture rates of Pop III stars. As expected, we find that the inclusion of the heavier He nuclei leads to an enhancement of the overall capture rates, further improving the potential of Pop III stars as dark matter probes.