Flavor blocking of dark matter thermalization in neutron stars
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866909926428770304 |
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| author | Davoudiasl, Hooman Zink, Jaime Hoefken Trojanowski, Sebastian |
| author_facet | Davoudiasl, Hooman Zink, Jaime Hoefken Trojanowski, Sebastian |
| contents | Neutron stars (NSs) provide exceptional laboratories for probing dark matter (DM) interactions beyond the reach of terrestrial experiments. We investigate a scenario in which DM couples to electrons and muons through a lepton-flavor-violating (LFV) coupling. In the strong gravitational field of NSs, infalling DM attains semi-relativistic velocities that activate inelastic transitions $χe \leftrightarrow χμ$, leading to efficient energy deposition through scattering and annihilation. We show that this latter heating mechanism remains efficient even for $p$-wave suppressed annihilations. This is due to \textsl{flavor blocking} of DM thermalization with the NS, as LFV interactions become forbidden for low kinetic energies of $χ$. The resulting DM-induced heating can sustain NS surface temperatures of $T_s \gtrsim 2 \times 10^3~\mathrm{K}$, providing an observable signature for future infrared searches. This establishes NS heating as a powerful probe of flavor-violating DM portals, capable of probing thermal targets beyond the reach of direct, indirect, and accelerator-based searches, as we illustrate for the axion-like particle (ALP) mediator. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_05651 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Flavor blocking of dark matter thermalization in neutron stars Davoudiasl, Hooman Zink, Jaime Hoefken Trojanowski, Sebastian High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Neutron stars (NSs) provide exceptional laboratories for probing dark matter (DM) interactions beyond the reach of terrestrial experiments. We investigate a scenario in which DM couples to electrons and muons through a lepton-flavor-violating (LFV) coupling. In the strong gravitational field of NSs, infalling DM attains semi-relativistic velocities that activate inelastic transitions $χe \leftrightarrow χμ$, leading to efficient energy deposition through scattering and annihilation. We show that this latter heating mechanism remains efficient even for $p$-wave suppressed annihilations. This is due to \textsl{flavor blocking} of DM thermalization with the NS, as LFV interactions become forbidden for low kinetic energies of $χ$. The resulting DM-induced heating can sustain NS surface temperatures of $T_s \gtrsim 2 \times 10^3~\mathrm{K}$, providing an observable signature for future infrared searches. This establishes NS heating as a powerful probe of flavor-violating DM portals, capable of probing thermal targets beyond the reach of direct, indirect, and accelerator-based searches, as we illustrate for the axion-like particle (ALP) mediator. |
| title | Flavor blocking of dark matter thermalization in neutron stars |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.05651 |