Impact of Dark Matter and Rotation on Neutron Star Properties

Pinku Routaray, Abirbhav Chakrawarty, Bharat Kumar

Published 2024-09-02Version 1

In this study, we examine the combined effects of dark matter (DM) and rotation on the properties of neutron stars (NSs). We employ a self-interacting dark matter model, motivated by the neutron decay anomaly, within the relativistic mean-field formalism to explore its impact on both static and rotating NSs. The Hartle-Thorne approach is utilized to model rotating NSs, treating the DM interaction strength ($G$) as a free parameter and considering angular velocity ($\Omega$) for rotation. We investigate how DM influences the mass-shedding limit, determined using the Keplerian frequency, and analyze the variations in angular velocity at different DM interaction strengths to assess their effects on NS mass, radius, central energy density, and eccentricity. Our results indicate that while rotation increases mass and radius due to centrifugal forces, DM softens the EOS, reducing these properties, particularly at higher DM fractions. DM also reduces rotational deformation, leading to lower eccentricity compared to DM-free NSs at the same angular velocity. Additionally, we calculate the relative deviations in maximum rotational mass and canonical equatorial radius from their baseline values, finding that high DM fractions combined with low angular velocities result in significant reductions, while low DM fractions with high rotational speeds lead to positive deviations, indicating greater deformation.