Fate of a neutron star with an endoparasitic black hole and implications for dark matter

Understand

We study the dynamics and observational signatures of a neutron star being consumed by a much less massive black hole residing inside the star.

• This phenomenon could arise in a variety of scenarios, including after the capture of a primordial black hole, or in some models of asymmetric dark matter where the dark matter particles collect at the center of a neutron star and eventually collapse to form a black hole.
• However, the details of how the neutron star implodes are not well known, which is crucial to determining the observational implications of such events.
• We utilize fully general relativistic simulations to follow the evolution of such a black hole as it grows by several orders of magnitude, and ultimately consumes the neutron star.