Constraining mirror dark matter inside neutron stars

• DOI: 10.1016/j.dark.2021.100796
• Publication Date: 2021-03-07T17:08:02Z
• Authors: Raul Ciancarella; Francesco Pannarale; Andrea Addazi; Antonino Marcianò
• Keywords: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); FOS: Physical sciences; General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph); Gravitational Waves; Mirror dark matter; Neutron stars; 0103 physical sciences; Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

21 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables<br/>We inspect the possibility that neutron star interiors are a mixture of ordinary matter and mirror dark matter. This is a scenario that can be naturally envisaged according to well studied accretion mechanisms, including the Bondi-Hoyle one. We show that the inclusion of mirror dark matter in neutron star models lowers the maximum neutron star mass for a given equation of state, and that it decreases the tidal deformability of a given neutron star. These general features imply that, given an equation of state, one can constrain the maximum viable amount of mirror dark matter in neutron stars in order to consistently fulfill existing maximum mass and tidal deformability constraints. Conversely, using tidal deformability measurements to rule out equations of state requires making assumptions on the amount of mirror dark matter contained in neutron stars. Finally, the presence of mirror dark matter also modifies the universal relation that links the tidal deformability of a neutron star to its compactness. Therefore, caution is mandatory when considering exotic models, such as the ones discussed in this paper.<br/>