A sub-solar mass primordial black hole (PBH) passing through a neutron star, can lose enough energy through interactions with the dense stellar medium to become gravitationally bound to the star. Once captured, the PBH would sink to the core of the neutron star, and completely consume it from the inside. In this paper, we improve previous energy-loss calculations by considering a realistic solution for the neutron star interior, and refine the treatment of the interaction dynamics and collapse likelihood. We then consider the effect of a sub-solar PBH population on neutron stars near the Galactic center. We find that it is not possible to explain the lack of observed pulsars near the galactic center through dynamical capture of PBHs, as the velocity dispersion is too high. We then show that future observations of old neutron stars close to Sgr A* could set stringent constraints on the PBHs abundance. These cannot however be extended in the currently unconstrained asteroid-mass range, since PBHs of smaller mass would lose less energy in their interaction with the neutron star and end up in orbits that are too loosely bound and likely to be disrupted by other stars in the Galactic center.
We revisit the constraints on primordial black holes (PBHs) in the mass range $10^{13}-10^{18}$ g by comparing the 100\,keV-5\,GeV gamma-ray background with isotropic flux from PBH Hawking radiation (HR). We investigate three effects that may update the constraints on the PBH abundance; i) reliably calculating the secondary spectra of HR for energy below 5\,GeV, ii) the contributions to the measured isotropic flux from the Galactic PBH HR and that from annihilation radiation due to evaporated positrons, iii) inclusion of astrophysical background from gamma-ray sources. The conservative constra…
Primordial black holes (PBH), produced through a variety of processes in the early universe, could fill galactic halos accounting for a fraction or the totality of the dark matter. In particular, PBH with sub-stellar masses could be captured by stars, start to swallow their material, and eventually turn them into BH, hence originating a peculiar new type of stellar catastrophic event. Here we revisit this process in the most favorable case of PBH capture by neutron stars. We detail a number of novel features in the capture phase, during the settling within the star and mass growth of the PBH, …
The surface magnetic field strength of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) is found to be about 4 orders of magnitude lower than that of garden variety radio pulsars (with a spin of $\sim 0.5-5$ s and $B\sim 10^{12}$G). The exact mechanism of the apparent reduction of field strength in MSPs is still a subject of debate. One of the proposed mechanisms is burial of the surface magnetic field under matter accreted from a companion. In this article we review the recent work on magnetic confinement of accreted matter on neutron stars poles. We present the solutions of the magneto-static equations with a mor…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) from the early Universe constitute an attractive dark matter candidate. First detections of black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) candidate gravitational wave events by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration, GW200105 and GW200115, already prompted speculations about non-astrophysical origin. We analyze, for the first time, the total volumetric merger rates of PBH-NS binaries formed via two-body gravitational scattering, finding them to be subdominant to the astrophysical BH-NS rates. In contrast to binary black holes, a significant fraction of which can be of primordial origin, …
If primordial black holes with masses of $10^{25}\,\mbox{g}\gtrsim m \gtrsim 10^{17}\,\mbox{g}$ constitute a non-negligible fraction of the galactic dark-matter haloes, their existence should have observable consequences: they necessarily collide with galactic neutron stars, nest in their centers and accrete the dense matter, eventually converting them to neutron-star mass black holes while releasing the neutron-star magnetic field energy. Such processes may explain the fast radio bursts phenomenology, in particular their millisecond durations, large luminosities ${\sim}10^{43}$ erg/s, high ra…
In this work we revisit the thermal relaxation process for neutron stars. Such process is associated with the thermal coupling between the core and the crust of neutron stars. The thermal relaxation, which takes place at around 10 -- 100 years, is manifested as a sudden drop of the star's surface temperature. Such drop is smooth for slow cooling objects and very sharp for those with fast cooling. In our study we focus particularly on the cooling of neutron stars whose mass is slightly greater than the value above which the direct Urca (DU) process sets in. Considering different mechanisms for …
We revisit the short-term post-glitch relaxation of the Vela 2000 glitch in the simple two-component model of pulsar glitch by making use of the latest realistic equations of states from the microscopic Brueckner and the relativistic Brueckner theories for neutron stars, which can reconcile with the available astrophysical constraints. We show that to fit both the glitch size and the post-glitch jumps in frequency derivatives approximately one minute after the glitch, the mass of the Vela pulsar is necessarily small, and there may be demands for a stiff equation of state (which results in a ty…
We study the solution space of general relativistic, axisymmetric, equilibria of differentially rotating neutron stars with realistic, nuclear equations of state. We find that different types of stars, which were identified by earlier works for polytropic equations of state, arise for realistic equations of state, too. Scanning the solution space for the sample of realistic equations of state we treat, we find lower limits on the maximum rest masses supported by cold, differentially rotating stars for each type of stars. We often discover equilibrium configurations that can support more than 2…
University of Wroclaw（弗罗茨瓦夫大学）；Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)（德累斯顿-罗斯多夫亥姆霍兹中心）；Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS)（先进系统理解中心）
Revisiting $^7$Be Weak and Radiative Transition Rates in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: Implications for the Primordial Lithium Problem
European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*)（欧洲核物理及相关领域理论研究中心）；Bruno Kessler Foundation（布鲁诺·凯斯勒基金会）；Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA-INFN)（特伦托基础物理与应用研究所）；National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Sezione di Milano（意大利国家核物理研究所，米兰分部）；School of Science and Technology – Physics Division, University of Camerino（卡梅里诺大学理学院物理学系）；INAF, Observatory of Abruzzo（意大利国家天体物理研究所，阿布鲁佐天文台）；National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Sezione di Perugia（意大利国家核物理研究所，佩鲁贾分部）
The interaction of an asteroid-mass primordial black hole (PBH) with a slowly-rotating neutron star (NS) can lead to detectable gamma-ray emission via modern observatories like Fermi-LAT or e-ASTROGRAM. Depending on the specific PBH relativistic orbit in the NS Schwarschild spacetime and the relative orientation of this binary system with respect to Earth, the PBH Hawking radiation will show a characteristic temperature profile over time. Essentially, a moderate heating behaviour (or even a progressive and constant cooling phase) is found for the majority of the event, followed by a sudden and…
We propose a mechanism that can convert a sizeable fraction of neutron stars into black holes with mass $\sim 1M_\odot$, too light to be produced via standard stellar evolution. We show that asymmetric fermionic dark matter of mass $\sim$ TeV, with attractive self-interaction within the range that alleviates the problems of collisionless cold dark matter, can accumulate in a neutron star and collapse, forming a seed black hole that converts the rest of the star to a solar mass black hole. We estimate the fraction of neutron stars that can become black holes without contradicting existing neutr…
Pulsars show a steady decrease in their rotational frequency, occasionally interrupted by sudden spin-ups called glitches, whose physical origin is still a mystery. One suggested explanation for at least the small glitches are starquakes, that is, failures of the solid neutron star crust, in which the progressive reduction in the centrifugal force deforms the star, stressing the solid until it breaks. This produces a spin-up, dissipating energy inside the star. We analyze the deformations produced by the decreasing centrifugal force, modeling the star with a fluid core and a solid crust, each …
We revisit the merger rate for Galactic double neutron star (DNS) systems in light of recent observational insight into the longitudinal and latitudinal beam shape of the relativistic DNS PSR J1906$+$0746. Due to its young age and its relativistic orbit, the pulsar contributes significantly to the estimate of the joint Galactic merger rate. We follow previous analyses by modelling the underlying pulsar population of nine merging DNS systems and study the impact and resulting uncertainties when replacing simplifying assumptions made in the past with actual knowledge of the beam shape, its exten…
We explore in general relativity the survival time of neutron stars that host an endoparasitic, possibly primordial, black hole at their center. Corresponding to the minimum steady-state Bondi accretion rate for adiabatic flow that we found earlier for stiff nuclear equations of state (EOSs), we derive analytically the maximum survival time after which the entire star will be consumed by the black hole. We also show that this maximum survival time depends only weakly on the stiffness for polytropic EOSs with $Γ\geq 5/3$, so that this survival time assumes a nearly universal value that depends …
We use realistic Monte-Carlo simulations including both gravitational-wave and short gamma-ray burst selection effects to revisit the coincident rate of binary systems composed of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole. We show that the fraction of GW triggers that can be observed in coincidence with sGRBs is proportional to the beaming factor at $z=0$, but increases with the distance, until it reaches 100 \% at the GW detector horizon distance. When this is taken into account the rate is improved by a factor of $~3$ compared to the simple beaming factor correction. We provide an…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) interacting with compact stars in binaries lead to a new class of gravity wave signatures that we explore. A small $10^{-16} - 10^{-7} M_{\odot}$ PBH captured by a neutron star or a white dwarf will eventually consume the host. The resulting black hole will have a mass of only $\sim0.5-2.5 M_{\odot}$, not expected from astrophysics. For a double neutron star binary system this leads to a transmutation into a black hole-neutron star binary, with a gravity wave signal detectable by the LIGO-VIRGO network. For a neutron star-white dwarf system this leads to a black h…
Gravitational microlensing may detect dark stellar remnants - black holes or neutron stars - even if they are isolated. However, it is challenging to estimate masses of isolated dark stellar remnants using solely photometric data for microlensing events. A recent analysis of OGLE-III long-timescale microlensing events exhibiting the annual parallax effects claimed that a number of bright events were due to "mass-gap" objects (with masses intermediate between those of neutron stars and black holes). Here, we present a detailed description of the updated and corrected method that can be used to …
Since the gravitational wave event GW170817 and gamma-ray burst GW170817A there have been numerous studies constraining the burst properties through analysis of the afterglow light curves. Most agree that the burst was viewed off-axis with a ratio of the observer angle to the jet angle ($θ_{obs}/θ_j$) between 4 - 6. We use a parameterized model and broadband synchrotron data up to $\sim 800$ days post-merger to constrain parameters of the burst. To reproduce the hydrodynamics of a gamma-ray burst outflow we use a two-parameter "boosted fireball" model. The structure of a boosted fireball is de…
We investigate the possibility of the gravitational-wave event GW170817 being a light, solar-mass black hole (BH) - neutron star (NS) merger. We explore two exotic scenarios involving primordial black holes (PBH) that could produce such an event, taking into account available observational information on NGC 4993. First, we entertain the possibility of dynamical NS-PBH binary formation where a solar-mass PBH and a NS form a binary through gravitational interaction. We find that while dynamical NS-PBH formation could account for the GW170817 event, the rate is highly dependent on unknown densit…
A number of possible mechanisms have been suggested to generate density inhomogeneities in the early Universe which could survive until the onset of primordial nucleosynthesis and generate neutron-rich regions. In this work we are not concerned with how the inhomogeneities were generated but we want to focus on the effect of such inhomogeneities on primordial nucleosynthesis. One of the proposed signatures of inhomogeneity, the synthesis of very heavy elements by neutron capture in a primordial r-process, was analyzed for varying baryon to photon ratios $η$ and fluctuation length scales $L$.
As space expands, the energy density in black holes increases relative to that of radiation, providing us with motivation to consider scenarios in which the early universe contained a significant abundance of such objects. In this study, we revisit the constraints on primordial black holes derived from measurements of the light element abundances. Black holes and their Hawking evaporation products can impact the era of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) by altering the rate of expansion at the time of neutron-proton freeze-out, as well as by radiating mesons which can convert protons into neutrons…
Probing the QCD axion dark matter (DM) hypothesis is extremely challenging as the axion interacts very weakly with Standard Model particles. We propose a new avenue to test the QCD axion DM via transient radio signatures coming from encounters between neutron stars (NSs) and axion minihalos around primordial black holes (PBHs). We consider a general QCD axion scenario in which the PQ symmetry breaking occurs before (or during) inflation coexisting with a small fraction of DM in the form of PBHs. The PBHs will unavoidably acquire around them axion minihalos with the typical length scale of pars…
If very low mass primordial black holes (PBH) within the asteroid/moon-mass range indeed reside in galactic dark matter halos, they must necessarily collide with galactic neutron stars (NSs). These collisions must, again necessarily, form light black holes (LBHs) with masses of typical NSs, $M_{\rm LBH} \approx \,1-2\,M_{\odot}$. LBHs may be behind events already detected by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors (GW170817, GW190425, and others such as a mixed stellar black hole-neutron star mass event GW191219_163120), and most recently by microlensing (OGLE-BLG-2011-0462). Although the st…
We propose several novel scenarios how capture of small sublunar-mass primordial black holes (PBHs) by compact stars, white dwarfs or neutron stars, can lead to distinct short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) as well as microquasars (MQs). In addition to providing new signatures, relativistic jets from these systems will accelerate positrons to high energies. We find that if PBHs constitute a sizable fraction of DM, they can significantly contribute to the excess observed in the positron flux by the Pamela, the AMS-02 and the Fermi-LAT experiments. Our proposal combines the beneficial features of astr…
We revisit the lower bound on binary tidal deformability tilde{Lambda} imposed by a luminous kilonova/macronova, AT 2017gfo, by numerical-relativity simulations of models that are consistent with gravitational waves from the binary neutron star merger GW170817. Contrary to the claim made in the literature, we find that binaries with tilde{Lambda}<~400 can explain the luminosity of AT 2017gfo, as long as moderate mass ejection from the remnant is assumed as had been done in previous work. The reason is that the maximum mass of a neutron star is not strongly correlated with the tidal deformabili…
We show that some or all of the inventory of $r$-process nucleosynthesis can be produced in interactions of primordial black holes (PBHs) with neutron stars (NSs) if PBHs with masses ${10}^{-14}\,{\rm M}_\odot < {\rm M}_{\rm PBH} < {10}^{-8}\,{\rm M}_\odot$ make up a few percent or more of the dark matter. A PBH captured by a neutron star (NS) sinks to the center of the NS and consumes it from the inside. When this occurs in a rotating millisecond-period NS, the resulting spin-up ejects $\sim 0.1-0.5\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$ of relatively cold neutron-rich material. This ejection process and the acco…
Primordial black holes of planetary masses captured by compact stars are widely studied to constrain their composition fraction of dark matter. Such a capture may lead to an inspiral process and be detected through gravitational wave signals. In this Letter, we study the post-capture inspiral process by considering two different kinds of compact stars, i.e., strange stars and neutron stars. The dynamical equations are numerically solved and the gravitational wave emission is calculated. It is found that the Advanced LIGO can detect the inspiraling of a $10^{-5}$ solar mass primordial black hol…
Although observations made with the CoGeNT and CDMS experiments have been interpreted as possible signals of low-mass (~7-10 GeV) dark matter particles, constraints from the XENON100 collaboration appear to be incompatible with this hypothesis, at least at face value. In this paper, we revisit XENON100's constraint on dark matter in this mass range, and consider how various uncertainties and assumptions made might alter this conclusion. We also note that while XENON100's two nuclear recoil candidates each exhibit very low ratios of ionization-to-scintillation signals, making them difficult to …
Exploring memory-burdened primordial black holes with ultra-high-energy cosmic-rays
Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI)（格兰萨索科学研究所）；INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS)（意大利国家核物理研究院大萨索国家实验室）；Scuola Superiore Meridionale（南方高等学院）；INFN - Sezione di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究院那不勒斯分部）
Context: Vela X-1 is one of the best studied X-ray binaries. Frequently though, specific values for its parameters have been used in subsequent studies without considering alternatives. Aims: We aim to provide a robust compilation and synthesis of the accumulated knowledge about Vela X-1 as a solid baseline for future studies and identify specific avenues of possible future research. Methods: We explore the literature for Vela X-1 and on modelling efforts, describing the evolution of the system knowledge. We also add information derived from public data, especially the Gaia EDR3 release. Resul…
On June 20, 2020, the LIGO-Virgo collaboration announced the discovery of GW190814, a gravitational wave event originating from a binary system merger between a black hole of mass $M_1 = 23.2^{+1.1} _ {-1.0}M_\odot$ and an unidentified object with a mass of $M_2 = 2.59^{+0.08} _ {-0.09}M_\odot$. This second object would be either the heaviest neutron star or lightest black hole observed to date. Here we investigate the possibility of the $\sim 2.6M_\odot$ object being a primordial black hole (PBH). We find that a primordial black hole explanation to GW190814 is unlikely as it is limited by the…
Diffusive nuclear burning of H by an underlying material capable of capturing protons can readily consume H from the surface of neutron stars (NSs) during their early cooling history. In the absence of subsequent accretion, it will be depleted from the photosphere. We now extend diffusive nuclear burning to He, motivated by the recent observation by Ho \& Heinke of a carbon atmosphere on the NS in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. We calculate the equilibrium structure of He on an underlying $α$ capturing material, accounting for thermal, mass defect, and Coulomb corrections on the stratific…
Hot matter with nucleons can be produced in the inner region of the neutrino-dominated accretion flow in gamma-ray bursts or during the proto-neutron star birth in successful supernova. The composition and equation of state of the matter depend on the dynamic $β$ equilibrium under various neutrino opacities. The strong interaction between nucleons may also play an important role. We plan to extend the previous studies by incorporating these two aspects in our model. The modification of the $β$-equilibrium condition from neutrino optically thin to thick has been modeled by an equilibrium factor…
The ultrarelativistic jets triggered by neutrino annihilation processes or Blandford-Znajek (BZ) mechanisms in stellar-mass black hole (BH) hyperaccretion systems are generally considered to power gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Due to the high accretion rate, the central BHs might grow rapidly on a short timescale, providing a new way to understand "the lower mass gap" problem. In this paper, we use the BH hyperaccretion model to investigate BH mass growth based on observational GRB data. The results show that (i) if the initial BH mass is set as $3~M_\odot$, the neutrino annihilation processes are …
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are one of the most interesting nonparticle dark matter (DM) candidates. They may explain all the DM content in the Universe in the mass regime from about $10^{-14}M_{\odot}$ to $10^{-11}M_{\odot}$. We study PBHs as the source of fast radio bursts (FRBs) via magnetic reconnection in the event of collisions between them and neutron stars (NSs) in galaxies. We investigate the energy loss of PBHs during PBH-NS encounters to model their capture by NSs. To an order-of-magnitude estimation, we conclude that the parameter space of PBHs being all DM is accidentally consis…
We consider spherically symmetric accretion onto a small, possibly primordial, black hole residing at the center of a neutron star governed by a cold nuclear equation of state (EOS). We generalize the relativistic Bondi solution for such EOSs, approximated by piecewise polytropes, and thereby obtain analytical expressions for the steady-state matter profiles and accretion rates. We compare these rates with those found by time-dependent, general relativistic hydrodynamical simulations upon relaxation and find excellent agreement. We consider several different candidate EOSs, neutron star masses…
