PT Journal
AU Cermeño, M
   Perez-Garcia, MA
   Lineros, RA
TI Enhanced neutrino emissivities in pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter annihilation in neutron stars
SO Astrophysical Journal
JI Astrophys. J.
PY 2018
BP 157
EP 9pp
VL 863
IS 2
DI 10.3847/1538-4357/aad1ec
LA English
DE dark matter; neutrinos; stars: neutron
AB We calculate neutrino emissivities from self-annihilating dark matter (DM) (chi) in the dense and hot stellar interior of a (proto)neutron star. Using a model where DM interacts with nucleons in the stellar core through a pseudoscalar boson (a) we find that the neutrino production rates from the dominant reaction channels chi -> nu(nu) over bar or chi chi -> aa, with subsequent decay of the mediator a -> nu(nu) over bar, could locally match and even surpass those of the standard neutrinos from the modified nuclear URCA processes at early ages. We find that the emitting region can be localized in a tiny fraction of the star (less than a few percent of the core volume) and the process can last its entire lifetime for some cases under study. We discuss the possible consequences of our results for stellar cooling in light of existing DM constraints.
ER