Identifying Dark Matter Burners in the Galactic center

Understand

If the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of our Galaxy grew adiabatically, then a dense "spike" of dark matter is expected to have formed around it.

• Assuming that dark matter is composed primarily of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a star orbiting close enough to the SMBH can capture WIMPs at an extremely high rate.
• The stellar luminosity due to annihilation of captured WIMPs in the stellar core may be comparable to or even exceed the luminosity of the star due to thermonuclear burning.
• The model thus predicts the existence of unusual stars, i.e.