亚稳态中子星作为重暗物质的瞬变率探测器
Metastable Neutron Stars as Transient-Rate Detectors of Heavy Dark Matter
- Tsung-Dao Lee Institute & School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（李政道研究所与物理天文学院，上海交通大学）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。
AI总结：
本研究提出利用亚稳态中子星种群瞬变率探测重暗物质，通过非单调转变率排除有限相互作用率区间，提供种群级新探针。
AI中文摘要：
亚稳态中子星在局部能量沉积引发临界气泡成核时，可发生灾难性转变，成为含夸克恒星。我们证明，暗物质诱导的转变可通过中子星种群当前的瞬变率加以约束，而非如以往文献中常假设的，依赖任何单个强子星的存活。种群耗竭使得当前转变率呈非单调性：弱触发产生少量转变，而足够快速的触发则主要转变过去形成的恒星。因此，瞬变观测可排除一个有限的相互作用率区间，这与传统单侧存活界限有质的区别。以经波束校正的短伽马射线暴率作为基准，我们推导出对暗物质湮灭、衰变、非弹性粒子散射及宏观暗物质弹性散射的约束，包括现有探测未覆盖的参数空间。瞬变种群统计因此为暗扇区相互作用及超致密物质相结构提供了一种新的种群级探测手段。
英文摘要：
Metastable neutron stars can undergo catastrophic conversion to quark-containing stars when a localized energy deposition nucleates a critical bubble. We show that dark-matter-induced conversions can be constrained by the present transient rate of the neutron star population, rather than by the survival of any individual hadronic star as often assumed in previous literature. Population depletion makes the present transition rate nonmonotonic: weak triggering produces few transitions, whereas sufficiently rapid triggering predominantly converts stars formed in the past. Consequently, transient observations can exclude a finite interval of interaction rates, qualitatively different from conventional one-sided survival bounds. Using the beaming-corrected short gamma ray burst rate as a benchmark, we derive constraints on dark matter annihilation, decay, inelastic particle scattering, and elastic scattering of macroscopic dark matter, including parameter space not covered by existing probes. Transient demographics thus provide a new population level probe of dark sector interactions and the phase structure of ultradense matter.
