Constraining decaying dark matter with neutron stars

The amount of decaying dark matter, accumulated in the central regions in neutron stars together with the energy deposition rate from decays, may set a limit on the neutron star survival rate against transitions to more compact objects provided nuclear matter is not the ultimate stable state of matter and that dark matter indeed is unstable. More generally, this limit sets constraints on the dark matter particle decay time, $\tau_{\chi}$. We find that in the range of uncertainties intrinsic to such a scenario, masses $(m_{\chi}/ \rm TeV) \gtrsim 9 \times 10^{-4}$ or $(m_{\chi}/ \rm TeV) \gtrsim 5 \times 10^{-2}$ and lifetimes ${\tau_{\chi}}\lesssim 10^{55}$ s and ${\tau_{\chi}}\lesssim 10^{53}$ s can be excluded in the bosonic or fermionic decay cases, respectively, in an optimistic estimate, while more conservatively, it decreases $\tau_{\chi}$ by a factor $\gtrsim10^{20}$. We discuss the validity under which these results may improve with other current constraints.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, matches published versio

A possible contribution to CMB anisotropies at high l from primordial voids

We present preliminary results of an analysis into the effects of primordial voids on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We show that an inflationary bubble model of void formation predicts excess power in the CMB angular power spectrum that peaks between 2000 < l < 3000. Therefore, voids that exist on or close to the last scattering surface at the epoch of decoupling can contribute significantly to the apparent rise in power on these scales recently detected by the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI).Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. MNRAS accepted versio

Bumpy Power Spectra and dT/T

With the recent publication of the measurements of the radiation angular power spectrum from the BOOMERanG Antarctic flight (de Bernardis et al. 2000), it has become apparent that the currently favoured spatially-flat cold dark matter model (matter density parameter $\Omega_{\rm m}=0.3$, flatness being restored by a cosmological constant $\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.7$, Hubble parameter $h=0.65$, baryon density parameter $\Omega_{\rm b}h^2=0.02$) no longer provides a good fit to the data. We describe a phenomenological approach to resurrecting this paradigm. We consider a primordial power spectrum which incorporates a bump, arbitrarily placed at $k_{\rm b}$, and characterized by a Gaussian in log $k$ of standard deviation $\sigma_{\rm b}$ and amplitude ${\rm A}_{\rm b}$, that is superimposed onto a scale-invariant power spectrum. We generate a range of theoretical models that include a bump at scales consistent with cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure observations, and perform a simple $\chi^2$ test to compare our models with the $COBE$ DMR data and the recently published BOOMERanG and MAXIMA data. Unlike models that include a high baryon content, our models predict a low third acoustic peak. We find that low $\ell$ observations (20 $< \ell <$ 200) are a critical discriminant of the bumps because the transfer function has a sharp cutoff on the high $\ell$ side of the first acoustic peak...Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, updated reference

The Clumpiness of Cold Dark Matter: Implications for the Annihilation Signal

We examine the expected signal from annihilation events in realistic cold dark matter halos. If the WIMP is a neutralino, with an annihilation cross-section predicted in minimal SUSY models for the lightest stable relic particle, the central cusps and dense substructure seen in simulated halos may produce a substantial flux of energetic gamma rays. We derive expressions for the relative flux from such events in simple halos with various density profiles, and use these to calculate the relative flux produced within a large volume as a function of redshift. This flux peaks when the first halos collapse, but then declines as small halos merge into larger systems of lower density. Simulations show that halos contain a substantial amount of dense substructure, left over from the incomplete disruption of smaller halos as they merge together. We calculate the contribution to the flux due to this substructure, and show that it can increase the annihilation signal substantially. Overall, the present-day flux from annihilation events may be an order of magnitude larger than predicted by previous calculations. We discuss the implications of these results for current and future gamma-ray experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures; submitted to MNRA

Light dark matter scattering in outer neutron star crusts

We calculate for the first time the phonon excitation rate in the outer crust of a neutron star due to scattering from light dark matter (LDM) particles gravitationally boosted into the star. We consider dark matter particles in the sub-GeV mass range scattering off a periodic array of nuclei through an effective scalar-vector interaction with nucleons. We find that LDM effects cause a modification of the net number of phonons in the lattice as compared to the standard thermal result. In addition, we estimate the contribution of LDM to the ion-ion thermal conductivity in the outer crust and find that it can be significantly enhanced at large densities. Our results imply that for magnetized neutron stars the LDM-enhanced global conductivity in the outer crust will tend to reduce the anisotropic heat conduction between perpendicular and parallel directions to the magnetic field.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Diffusion of dark matter in a hot and dense nuclear environment

We calculate the mean free path in a hot and dense nuclear environment for a fermionic dark matter particle candidate in the $\sim$GeV mass range interacting with nucleons via scalar and vector effective couplings. We focus on the effects of density and temperature in the nuclear medium in order to evaluate the importance of the final state blocking in the scattering process. We discuss qualitatively possible implications for opacities in stellar nuclear scenarios, where dark matter may be gravitationally accreted.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Strangelets and the TeV-PeV cosmic-ray anisotropies

Several experiments (e.g., Milagro and IceCube) have reported the presence in the sky of regions with significant excess in the arrival direction distributions of Galactic cosmic rays in the TeV to PeV energy range. Here we study the possibility that these hotspots are a manifestation of the peculiar nature of these cosmic rays, and of the presence of molecular clouds near the sources. We propose that stable quark matter lumps or so-called "strangelets" can be emitted in the course of the transition of a neutron star to a more compact astrophysical object. A fraction of these massive particles would lose their charge by spallation or electron capture in molecular clouds located in the immediate neighborhood of their source, and propagate rectilinearly without decaying further, hence inducing anisotropies of the order of the cloud size. With reasonable astrophysical assumptions regarding the neutron star transition rate, strangelet injection and neutralization rates, we can reproduce successfully the observed hotspot characteristics and their distribution in the sky.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, submitted to PR

Dark Matter and The Anthropic Principle

We evaluate the problem of galaxy formation in the landscape approach to phenomenology of the axion sector. With other parameters of standard LambdaCDM cosmology held fixed, the density of cold dark matter is bounded below relative to the density of baryonic matter by the requirement that structure should form before the era of cosmological constant domination of the universe. Galaxies comparable to the Milky Way can only form if the ratio also satisfies an upper bound. The resulting constraint on the density of dark matter is too loose to select a low axion decay constant or small initial displacement angle on anthropic grounds.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figur