Search for Dark Matter Effects on Gravitational Signals from Neutron Star Mergers

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dark matter within neutron stars could influence gravitational wave signals from their mergers, potentially adding detectable features to the signals.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that dark matter cores in neutron stars can produce observable signatures in gravitational wave spectra, a novel aspect not previously explored.

Findings

Dark matter cores can create additional peaks in gravitational wave spectra.

Such peaks are distinguishable from neutron star matter features.

Potential for new dark matter detection methods via gravitational waves.

Abstract

Motivated by the recent detection of the gravitational wave signal emitted by a binary neutron star merger, we analyse the possible impact of dark matter on such signals. We show that dark matter cores in merging neutron stars may yield an observable supplementary peak in the gravitational wave power spectral density following the merger, which could be distinguished from the features produced by the neutron components.