• Open Access

Neutron star observations of pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter

John Coffey, David McKeen, David E. Morrissey, and Nirmal Raj
Phys. Rev. D 106, 115019 – Published 19 December 2022

Abstract

Scattering interactions between dark matter and Standard Model states mediated by pseudoscalars are generically challenging to uncover at direct detection experiments due to rates suppressed by powers of the local dark matter velocity vDM103c. However, they may be observed in the dark matter-induced heating of neutron stars, whose steep gravitational potentials prevent such suppression by accelerating infalling particles to semirelativistic speeds. We investigate this phenomenon in the context of two specific, self-consistent scenarios for pseudoscalars coupled to dark matter, and compare the sensitivity of neutron star heating to bounds from direct searches for the mediators and dark matter. The first “lighter” scenario consists of sub-10 GeV mass dark matter mediated by an axionlike particle, while the second “heavier” scenario has dark matter above 10 GeV mediated by a dark pseudoscalar that mixes with a pseudoscalar from a two-Higgs doublet (the so-called 2HDM+a model). In both frameworks, we show that imminent measurements of neutron stars will be able to test pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter beyond the reach of direct dark matter searches as well as bounds on the mediators from flavor observables, beam dump experiments, and high-energy colliders.

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  • Received 16 July 2022
  • Accepted 1 December 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.106.115019

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Particles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

John Coffey1,*, David McKeen2,†, David E. Morrissey2,‡, and Nirmal Raj2,§

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8P 5C2, Canada
  • 2TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2A3, Canada

  • *jwcoffey@uvic.ca
  • mckeen@triumf.ca
  • dmorri@triumf.ca
  • §nraj@triumf.ca

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Vol. 106, Iss. 11 — 1 December 2022

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