Is there a hidden connection between massive neutron stars and dark matter in cosmology?

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical scenario linking massive neutron stars, dark matter, and dark energy, suggesting that neutron stars can transform into invisible dark gluon-quark objects resembling black holes, potentially explaining dark matter halos.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where neutron stars can evolve into dark matter candidates through meson interactions and super-baryon formation, connecting astrophysical objects with cosmological dark matter.

Findings

Neutron stars can undergo a runaway process forming super-baryons.

Super-baryons can grow into dark gluon-quark objects indistinguishable from black holes.

These objects could account for dark matter halos in the universe.

Abstract

Astronomical observations reveal a gap in the mass spectrum of relativistic objects: neither black holes nor neutron stars with 2 - 5 solar masses have ever been observed. In this article I proceed in presenting the scenario which discloses a possible hidden connection between massive neutron stars (MANSs), dark matter and dark energy in cosmology. Accordingly, when the curved spacetime embedding MANSs compresses the nuclear matter to beyond a critical supranuclear density $n_{cr},$ mesons, generally transmitting the residual nuclear forces between neutrons, could gain energy by frequently interacting with a scalar field $\phi$ at the background. When the effective energy of mesons becomes comparable to the bag energy enclosing the quarks, the neutrons merge together and form a super-baryon (SB), whose interior is made of incompressible gluon-quark superfluid. It turns out that the process has a runaway-character: it enables the super-baryon to grow in mass and volume from inside-to-outside to finally metamorphose the entire object into a completely invisible dark gluon-quark object, practically indistinguishable from isolated stellar black holes. The inability of these objects to merge with other objects whilst agglomerating in clusters makes them excellent candidates both for black holes and for dark matter halos in cosmology.