How does dark matter affect compact star properties and high density constraints of strongly interacting matter

We study the impact of asymmetric bosonic dark matter on neutron starproperties, including possible changes of tidal deformability, maximum mass,radius, and matter distribution inside the star. The conditions at which darkmatter particles tend to condensate in the star's core or create an extendedhalo are presented. We show that dark matter condensed in a core leads to adecrease of the total gravitational mass and tidal deformability compared to apure baryonic star, which we will perceive as an effective softening of theequation of state. On the other hand, the presence of a dark matter haloincreases those observable quantities. Thus, observational data on compactstars could be affected by accumulated dark matter and, consequently,constraints we put on strongly interacting matter at high densities. To confirmthe presence of dark matter in the compact star's interior, and to break thedegeneracy between the effect of accumulated dark matter and stronglyinteracting matter properties at high densities, several astrophysical and GWtests are proposed.<br

Neutron back-scattering sensor for the detection of land mines

A hand-held neutron back-scattering sensor (NBS) has been developed at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro in the framework of the EU funded project DIAMINE. A description of the prototype and the first laboratory tests for land mine detection are reported in this paper