Constraining the parameter space of branon dark matter using white dwarf stars

Abstract

In the present work we study the branon dark matter particles impact on compact objects, and we provide the first constraints of the parameter space using white dwarf stars. The branon dark matter model is characterized by two free parameters, namely the branon mass particle M and the brane tension factor f . The latter determines the strength of the interaction of branon dark matter particles with baryons. By considering a typical white dwarf star we were able to obtain constraints on branon dark matter and compare with current limits obtained by direct detection searches and dark matter abundance. In particular our results show that i) for heavy branons with a mass M > 10GeV white dwarfs fail to provide us with bounds better than current limits from DM direct detection searches, and ii) for light branons in the mass range 2keV < M < 1GeV , which cannot be probed neither with current dark matter experiments nor with the next generation of detectors, the dark matter abundance constrain determines f as a function of M in the range 0.1GeV < M < 1GeV for the branon mass and 1GeV < f < 5GeV for the brane tension factor. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the limits from white dwarfs are not stronger than the dark matter abundance constrain.

GW170817 constraints on the properties of a neutron star in the presence of WIMP dark matter

“…However, NL3 EOSs satisfy the 90% as well as 50% confidence level of posterior EOSs only at a very large value of the energy density. The effects of DM on the EOSs are consistent with what was obtained in [49,50], where the authors fixed the mass of the DM particle and varied the wave number of the DM particle. In [49,50], the effects of DM were larger due to the fact that there the SM Higgs boson was the mediator and the mass of the DM particle was taken as 200 GeV.…”

“…The effects of DM on the EOSs are consistent with what was obtained in [49,50], where the authors fixed the mass of the DM particle and varied the wave number of the DM particle. In [49,50], the effects of DM were larger due to the fact that there the SM Higgs boson was the mediator and the mass of the DM particle was taken as 200 GeV. In this work, however, we have considered lighter DM particle and Higgs bosons, as was mentioned before, which can accommodate for scattering results consistent with the DAMA/LIBRA experiment.…”

“…The wave functions χ and ϕ correspond to DM particle and nucleon, respectively. We have not considered the higher order terms of the Higgs scalar potential (i.e., h 3 and h 4 ), since in the mean field theory approximation these terms are negligible [49].…”

“…The Fermi momentum of DM particles (k DM F ) is taken to be constant throughout the calculation with the value fixed at 0.06 GeV, although in references [49,50] the authors have considered values within a certain range. The effective mass of the nucleon (M * ) is modified due to the interaction with the Higgs boson.…”

“…In [48], the authors studied the properties of NS considering the DM halo and constrained the DM parameters using the GW170817 data. It was pointed out in [49] that the mass-radius relation of an NS can be affected in the presence of DM inside the object. The authors of [49,50] considered, respectively, the Walecka model [51] and the NL3 [52] EOSs, within the framework of relativistic mean field (RMF) theory, for the nucleonic part and fermionic DM inside the neutron star with additional self-coupling of Standard Model Higgs boson in reference [49].…”