Diffusion of dark matter in a hot and dense nuclear environment

TL;DR

This paper calculates the mean free path of fermionic dark matter particles in hot, dense nuclear environments, considering medium effects and implications for stellar dark matter accretion.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed calculation of dark matter mean free paths in nuclear media, accounting for density, temperature, and final state blocking effects.

Findings

Density and temperature significantly affect dark matter scattering rates.

Final state blocking alters the effective mean free path.

Implications for dark matter opacity in stellar environments.

Abstract

We calculate the mean free path in a hot and dense nuclear environment for a fermionic dark matter particle candidate in the $\sim$GeV mass range interacting with nucleons via scalar and vector effective couplings. We focus on the effects of density and temperature in the nuclear medium in order to evaluate the importance of the final state blocking in the scattering process. We discuss qualitatively possible implications for opacities in stellar nuclear scenarios, where dark matter may be gravitationally accreted.