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arXiv · 1811.06546

Neutron Star Stability in Light of the Neutron Decay Anomaly

Benjamin Grinstein·Chris Kouvaris·Niklas Grønlund Nielsen
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Abstract

A recent proposal suggests that experimental discrepancies on the lifetime of neutrons can be resolved if neutrons decay to dark matter. At the same time it has been demonstrated that such a decay mode would soften the nuclear equation of state resulting in neutron stars with a maximum mass much below currently observed ones. In this paper we demonstrate that appropriate dark matter-baryon interactions can accommodate neutron stars with mass above 2 solar masses. We also show that dark matter self-interactions could also help neutrons stars reach 2 solar masses provided that dark matter is of asymmetric nature.

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Benjamin Grinstein, Chris Kouvaris, Niklas Grønlund Nielsen. 2018-11-15. Neutron Star Stability in Light of the Neutron Decay Anomaly. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.123.091601

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