Indirect Probes of Dark Matter and Globular Cluster Properties From Dark Matter Annihilation within the Coolest White Dwarfs

Understand

White Dwarfs (WD) capture Dark Matter (DM) as they orbit within their host halos.

• These captured particles may subsequently annihilate, heating the stellar core and preventing the WD from cooling.
• The potential wells of WDs are considerably deeper and core temperatures significantly cooler than those of main sequence stars.
• Consequently, DM evaporation is less important in WDs and DM with masses $M_{\chi} \gtrsim 100\, \kev$ and annihilation cross-sections orders of magnitude below the canonical thermal cross-section ($\sigmav \gtrsim 10^{-46}\, \cm^3$/s) can significantly alter WD cooling in particular astrophysical environments.