The authors of the new work have studied ways to search for dark matter: it is difficult to detect it, since it is almost impossible to detect it.
The researchers drew attention to the fact that neutron stars can help in the search: they, due to their density, canThe mass of neutron stars is comparable to that of the Sun, butThe radius is several times smaller – up to ten kilometers.
Scientists said that in theory, dark matter particles collide with neutrons in the star, because of this, they loseAs a result, dark matter collects in the core of the star.This process, according to the authors, will lead to an increase in the temperature of old, cool neutron stars.This can be seen when observed from Earth.
In extreme cases, this can cause a neutron star to suddenly collapse into a black hole.
To identify and find anomalously hot neutron stars, you need to know the exact rate at which dark matter is captured.Until now, estimates of the Sun's capture velocity have been used for this purpose.But neutron stars differ from ordinary stars in an extremely extreme environment that strongly influenceson the scattering of dark matter particles.
The authors note that they studied the structure of neutrons and the interactions between them.This does not fit into the framework of the traditional model, where neutrons are consideredas point particles that form an ideal gas.
As a result, it turned out that these factors reduceenergy transfer when dark matter particles collide with neutrons, and also suppress the capture rate. This suppression of capture is enhanced to three orders of magnitude in very massive neutron stars.
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