Effects of mirror dark matter on neutron stars

Abstract

If dark matter is made of mirror baryons, they presumably are present in all gravitationally bound structures. Here, we investigate some effects of mirror dark matter on neutron stars and discuss possible observational consequences. The general-relativistic hydrostatic equations are generalized to spherical objects with multiple fluids that interact by gravity. We use the minimal parity-symmetric extension of the standard model, which implies that the microphysics is the same in the two sectors. We find that the mass–radius relation is significantly modified in the presence of a few percent mirror baryons. This effect mimics that of other exotica, e.g., quark matter. In contrast to the common view that the neutron-star equilibrium sequence is unique, we show that it depends on the relative number of mirror baryons to ordinary baryons. It is therefore, history dependent. The critical mass for core collapse, i.e., the process by which neutron stars are created, is modified in the presence of mirror baryons. We calculate the modified Chandrasekhar mass and fit it with a polynomial. A few percent mirror baryons is sufficient to lower the critical mass for core collapse by ∼ 0.1 M ⊙ . This could allow for the formation of extraordinary compact neutron stars with low mass.