SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 2506.22353

Bose-Einstein Condensate Dark Matter in the Core of Neutron Stars: Implications for Gravitational-wave Observations

Abstract

We investigate neutron stars admixed with dark matter (DM) in the form of a finite-temperature Bos-Einstein condensate (BEC) within a general relativistic two-fluid framework in which the nuclear and dark components interact only gravitationally. Using realistic nuclear matter equations of state (EOS), APR4, MPA1, and SLy, we construct equilibrium configurations and compute mas-radius relations, tidal Love numbers, and dimensionless tidal deformabilities. We quantify how the presence of a BEC dark component modifies the mas-$\Lambda$ relation relevant for gravitational wave observations, finding that increasing the DM mass fraction generically reduces the maximum mass, radius, and tidal deformability of neutron stars. By comparing theoretical mass-$\Lambda$ curves with EOS-insensitive posteriors from GW170817, we evaluate, in a conditional sense, the dark matter fractions that would align a given nuclear EOS with the observed tidal constraints; for example, under the assumption that APR4 describes nuclear matter and that the GW170817 components were dark-matter admixed neutron stars, our study favors dark matter fractions of order a few percent, whereas stiffer EOSs require larger fractions to achieve comparable agreement. This interpretation assumes that inspiral waveforms are adequately characterized by tidal deformability and should therefore be regarded as structural rather than a direct detection of dark matter. We also examine finite-temperature effects in the BEC sector and find that, for moderate dark matter fractions, temperature has a negligible impact on the stability and tidal properties of admixed configurations. Our results demonstrate how even modest DM admixtures can influence neutron star structure and tidal observables, highlighting the importance of considering non-standard matter components in multimessenger constraints on dense matter.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Samanwaya Mukherjee, P. S. Aswathi, Chiranjeeb Singha, Apratim Ganguly. 2025-06-27. Bose-Einstein Condensate Dark Matter in the Core of Neutron Stars: Implications for Gravitational-wave Observations. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22353

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc