Dark matter in compact stars

TL;DR

This paper reviews how compact stars like white dwarfs and neutron stars can be used to detect various forms of dark matter by leveraging their unique physical properties and recent theoretical insights.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of detection methods for different dark matter types using compact stars, highlighting new effects like the propellor phase and neutron star heating mechanisms.

Findings

Compact stars serve as effective dark matter detectors due to their extreme properties.

Novel effects such as the propellor phase influence dark matter accretion in neutron stars.

Dark matter capture can heat neutron stars through Auger and Cooper pair breaking processes.

Abstract

White dwarfs and neutron stars are far-reaching and multi-faceted laboratories in the hunt for dark matter. We review detection prospects of wave-like, particulate, macroscopic and black hole dark matter that make use of several exceptional properties of compact stars, such as ultra-high densities, deep fermion degeneracies, low temperatures, nucleon superfluidity, strong magnetic fields, high rotational regularity, and significant gravitational wave emissivity. Foundational topics first made explicit in this document include the effect of the ``propellor phase" on neutron star baryonic accretion, and the contribution of Auger and Cooper pair breaking effects to neutron star heating by dark matter capture.