Using neutron stars to probe dark matter charged under a Lµ − Lτ symmetry
Date
2025
Authors
Bell, N.F.
Busoni, G.
Ghosh, A.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2025; 2025(10):060-1-060-18
Statement of Responsibility
Nicole F. Bell, Giorgio Busoni, Avirup Ghosh
Conference Name
Abstract
Kinetic heating of old cold neutron stars, via the scattering of dark matter with matter in the star, provides a promising way to probe the nature of dark matter interactions. We consider a dark matter candidate that is a Standard Model singlet Dirac fermion, charged under a U(1)Lμ-Lτ symmetry. Such dark matter interacts with quarks and electrons only via loop-induced couplings, and hence is weakly constrained by direct-detection experiments and cosmic-microwave background observations. However, tree-level interactions with muons enable the dark matter to interact efficiently with the relativistic muon component of a neutron star, heating the star substantially. Using a fully relativistic approach for dark matter capture in the star, we show that observations of old cold neutron stars can probe a substantial, yet unexplored, region of parameter space for dark matter masses in the range 100 MeV - 100 GeV.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Sissa Medialab. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.