New Insights into Ultra-Compact Neutron Stars with Dark Matter
Recent research has explored the potential of generating ultra-compact neutron stars by incorporating bosonic dark matter. The study, titled "Generating ultra-compact neutron stars with bosonic dark matter," authored by Sarah Louisa Pitz and Jürgen Schaffner-Bielich, investigates the properties of neutron stars that contain self-interacting scalar bosonic dark matter. The interaction of dark matter is modeled using a generalized φn power-law potential.
The researchers conducted a stability analysis of these neutron star-dark matter configurations, revealing that the neutron star matter can be confined to a core radius of less than 7 kilometers. This core radius is significantly smaller than that of pure neutron stars, which typically do not reach such compactness. The findings indicate that the maximum gravitational mass of these ultra-compact configurations can reach up to 3.4 solar masses.
One of the key implications of this research is the potential to explain recent unusual mass-radius measurements of compact stars. The study suggests that the presence of dark matter could account for these discrepancies, indicating that neutron stars may not only contain hadronic matter but also a dark matter halo. This dual composition could help clarify the self-interaction strength of dark matter, as well as provide insights into the equation of state for the dark matter fluid.
The results of this study could have significant ramifications for our understanding of neutron stars and dark matter, potentially reshaping theoretical models in astrophysics. For further details, the full paper is available at arXiv:2408.13157.