Bosonic Dark Matter in Neutron Stars and its Effect on Gravitational Wave Signal

Abstract

We study an impact of self-interacting bosonic dark matter (DM) on various observable properties of neutron stars (NSs). The analysis is performed for asymmetric DM with masses from few MeV to GeV, the self-coupling constant of order $\mathcal{O}(1)$ and various DM fractions. Allowing a mixture between DM and baryonic matter, the formation of a dense DM core or an extended dark halo have been explored. We find that both distribution regimes crucially depend on the mass and fraction of DM for sub-GeV boson masses in the strong coupling regime. From the combined analysis of the mass-radius relation and the tidal deformability of compact stars including bosonic DM, we set a stringent constraint on DM fraction. We conclude that observations of 2$M_{\odot }$ NSs together with ${\Lambda }_{1.4}\le 580$ constraint, set by LIGO/Virgo Collaboration, favour sub-GeV DM particles with low fractions below $\sim 5\%$.

Comments: 18 pages, 17 figures, matches the published version in PRD