Dark Matter as a Possible New Energy Source for Future Rocket Technology

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of dark matter as a new propulsion fuel for future rockets, demonstrating that dark matter annihilation could accelerate spacecraft to significant fractions of the speed of light.

Contribution

It proposes a novel dark matter engine concept using annihilation products for propulsion, analyzing how dark matter density and halo structures influence acceleration.

Findings

Dark matter annihilation can accelerate spacecraft to 10^-5 c to 10^-3 c.

Presence of a central black hole can enable acceleration close to the speed of light.

Dark matter density and halo structure are critical for propulsion efficiency.

Abstract

Current rocket technology can not send the spaceship very far, because the amount of the chemical fuel it can take is limited. We try to use dark matter (DM) as fuel to solve this problem. In this work, we give an example of DM engine using dark matter annihilation products as propulsion. The acceleration is proportional to the velocity, which makes the velocity increase exponentially with time in non-relativistic region. The important points for the acceleration are how dense is the DM density and how large is the saturation region. The parameters of the spaceship may also have great influence on the results. We show that the (sub)halos can accelerate the spaceship to velocity $ 10^{- 5} c \sim 10^{- 3} c$. Moreover, in case there is a central black hole in the halo, like the galactic center, the radius of the dense spike can be large enough to accelerate the spaceship close to the speed of light.