Nucleon Structure and Strong Interactions in Dark Matter Capture in Neutron Stars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how nucleon structure and interactions significantly affect dark matter capture rates in neutron stars, revealing that previous models may overestimate capture by up to four orders of magnitude.

Contribution

It introduces the importance of including nucleon form factors and interactions in models of dark matter capture in neutron stars, which were often neglected before.

Findings

Nucleon structure effects can suppress capture rates by up to four orders of magnitude.

Nucleon interactions in dense matter are crucial for accurate capture rate calculations.

Proper modeling reduces overestimations in dark matter capture in neutron stars.

Abstract

We outline two important effects that are missing from most evaluations of the dark matter capture rate in neutron stars. As dark matter scattering with nucleons in the star involves large momentum transfer, nucleon structure must be taken into account via a momentum dependence of the hadronic form factors. In addition, due to the high density of neutron star matter, we should account for nucleon interactions rather than modeling the nucleons as an ideal Fermi gas. Properly incorporating these effects is found to suppress the dark matter capture rate by up to four orders of magnitude for the heaviest stars.