Speaker
Dr
M. Angeles Perez-Garcia
(University of Salamanca and IUFFyM)
Description
We propose that the existing population of neutron stars in the galaxy can help constrain the nature of decaying dark matter. The amount of decaying dark matter, accumulated in the central regions in neutron stars and the energy deposition rate from decays, may set a limit on the neutron star survival rate against transitions to more compact stars and, correspondingly, on the dark matter particle decay time, $\tau_{\chi}$. We find that for masses $(m_{\chi}/ \rm TeV) \gtrsim 9 \times 10^{-4}$ or $(m_{\chi}/ \rm TeV) \gtrsim 5 \times 10^{-2}$ in the bosonic or fermionic cases, lifetimes ${\tau_{\chi}}\lesssim 10^{55}$ s or ${\tau_{\chi}}\lesssim 10^{53}$ s are excluded respectively. These results may pose a problem for models including dark matter with smaller lifetimes aimed to explain the galactic excess in the ratio of positrons to electrons.
Author
Dr
M. Angeles Perez-Garcia
(University of Salamanca and IUFFyM)
Co-author
joseph silk
(IAP)