Dark halos around neutron stars and gravitational waves

Understand

We find that a class of models of MeV-GeV dark matter in which dark matter interacts strongly can be constrained by the observation of gravitational waves from neutron star mergers.

• Trace amounts of dark matter, either produced during the supernova or accreted later, can alter the structure of neutron stars and influence their tidal polarizability.
• We focus on models of dark matter interacting by the exchange of light vector gauge bosons that couple to a conserved dark charge.
• In these models, dark matter accumulated in neutron stars can extend to large radii and enhance their tidal polarizability.