Supernovae and superbursts by dark matter clumps

Abstract

Cosmologies in which dark matter clumps strongly on small scales are unfavorable to terrestrial detectors that are as yet unexposed to the clumps. I show that sub-hectometer clumps could trigger thermonuclear runaways by scattering on nuclei in white dwarf cores (carbon and oxygen) and neutron star oceans (carbon), setting off Type Ia-like supernovae and x-ray superbursts respectively. I consider two scenarios: ``dark clusters" that are essentially microhalos, and ``long-range dark nuggets", essentially macroscopic composites, with long-range Yukawa baryonic interactions that source the energy for igniting explosions. I constrain dark clusters weighing between the Planck mass and asteroid masses, and long-range dark nuggets over a wider mass range spanning forty orders of magnitude. These limits greatly complement searches I had co-proposed in 2109.04582 for scattering interactions of dark clumps in neutron stars, cosmic rays, and pre-historic minerals.

Comments: 10 pages revtex4 + references, 3 figures, 1 table; v2 matches PRD with main results unchanged, includes discussions on significant corrections to previous literature, limit-setting method, validity of saturated overburden effect, carbon fusion resonances, hyperbursts, Ca-rich transients, and retraction of a statement on former limits