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arXiv · 1007.1421

Dark matter, neutron stars and strange quark matter

M. Angeles Perez-Garcia·Joseph Silk·Jirina R. Stone
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Abstract

We show that self-annihilating neutralino WIMP dark matter accreted onto neutron stars may provide a mechanism to seed compact objects with long-lived lumps of strange quark matter, or strangelets, for WIMP masses above a few GeV. This effect may trigger a conversion of most of the star into a strange star. We use an energy estimate for the long-lived strangelet based on the Fermi gas model combined with the MIT bag model to set a new limit on the possible values of the WIMP mass that can be especially relevant for subdominant species of massive neutralinos.

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M. Angeles Perez-Garcia, Joseph Silk, Jirina R. Stone. 2010-09-04. Dark matter, neutron stars and strange quark matter. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.105.141101

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