The dark matter effect on realistic equation of state in neutron stars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how fermionic dark matter trapped inside neutron stars affects their equation of state and mass-radius relation using relativistic mean-field theory, revealing potential impacts on neutron star properties.

Contribution

It introduces a model incorporating dark matter-neutron interactions via Higgs exchange and compares the resulting equations of state and star properties to standard neutron star models.

Findings

Dark matter presence alters the equation of state.

Maximum neutron star mass is affected by dark matter.

Mass-radius relations differ with dark matter inclusion.

Abstract

In this work we apply relativistic mean-field theory in neutron stars assuming that fermionic dark matter is trapped inside the star and interacts directly with neutrons by exchanging Standard Model Higgs bosons. For realistic values of the parameters of the model we compute numerically the equation of state, and we compare it to the standard one. Furthermore, the mass-to-radius relation for both equations of state (pure neutron matter as well as admixed DM-neutron star) is shown, and the highest star mass for both cases is reported.