Simulation of thermal conduction by asymmetric dark matter in realistic stars and planets

TL;DR

This study uses realistic models of stars and planets to verify the accuracy of a formalism for simulating heat transport by asymmetric dark matter, confirming its validity across different celestial objects and interaction types.

Contribution

It provides the first validation of a heat transport formalism in realistic stellar and planetary models, including multiple interaction regimes and species.

Findings

Formalism remains accurate across all tested celestial objects.

Previous evaporation rate calculations are confirmed to be robust.

Monte Carlo software Cosmion is publicly available.

Abstract

Dark matter captured in stars can act as an additional heat transport mechanism, modifying fusion rates and asteroseismoloigcal observables. Calculations of heat transport rates rely on approximate solutions to the Boltzmann equation, which have never been verified in realistic stars. Here, we simulate heat transport in the Sun, the Earth, and a brown dwarf model, using realistic radial temperature, density, composition and gravitational potential profiles. We show that the formalism developed in arXiv:2111.06895 remains accurate across all celestial objects considered, across a wide range of kinematic regimes, for both spin-dependent and spin-independent interactions where scattering with multiple species becomes important. We further investigate evaporation rates of dark matter from the Sun, finding that previous calculations appear robust. Our Monte Carlo simulation software Cosmion is publicly available.