Dark Stars: Dark Matter in the First Stars leads to a New Phase of Stellar Evolution

TL;DR

Dark Stars are a proposed early universe stellar phase powered by dark matter annihilation, leading to massive, cool, bright stars that may evolve into supermassive black holes, with potential for multiple dark star phases.

Contribution

This paper introduces the concept of Dark Stars powered by dark matter annihilation, predicting their properties and evolutionary significance in early universe star formation.

Findings

First stars may be very massive (~800 solar masses)

Dark Stars are cool (~6000 K) and bright (~10^6 solar luminosities)

Dark Stars could be precursors to supermassive black holes

Abstract

The first phase of stellar evolution in the history of the universe may be Dark Stars, powered by dark matter heating rather than by fusion. Weakly interacting massive particles, which are their own antiparticles, can annihilate and provide an important heat source for the first stars in the the universe. This talk presents the story of these Dark Stars. We make predictions that the first stars are very massive ($\sim 800 M_\odot$), cool (6000 K), bright ($\sim 10^6 L_\odot$), long-lived ($\sim 10^6$ years), and probable precursors to (otherwise unexplained) supermassive black holes. Later, once the initial DM fuel runs out and fusion sets in, DM annihilation can predominate again if the scattering cross section is strong enough, so that a Dark Star is born again.