Abstract
We study the probability for nucleation of quark matter droplets in the dense cold cores of old neutron stars induced by the presence of a self-annihilating dark matter component, . Using a parametrized form of the equation of state for hadronic and quark phases of ordinary matter, we explore the thermodynamical conditions under which droplet formation is facilitated by the energy injection from self-annihilations. We obtain the droplet nucleation time as a function of the dark matter candidate mass, . We discuss further observational consequences.
- Received 26 April 2019
- Revised 25 September 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.103019
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Published by the American Physical Society