Dark matter interactions with muons in neutron stars. (arXiv:1906.10145v1 [hep-ph])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+Garani_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Raghuveer Garani</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+Heeck_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Julian Heeck</a>
Neutron stars contain a significant number of stable muons due to the large
chemical potential and degenerate electrons. This makes them the unique vessel
to capture muonphilic dark matter, which does not interact with other
astrophysical objects, including Earth and its direct-detection experiments.
The infalling dark matter can heat up the neutron star both kinetically and via
annihilations, which is potentially observable with future infrared telescopes.
New physics models for muonphilic dark matter can easily be motivated by, and
connected to, existing anomalies in the muon sector, e.g. the anomalous
magnetic moment or LHCb’s recent hints for lepton-flavor non-universality in
$Bto Kmu^+mu^-$ decays. We study the implications for a model with dark
matter charged under a local $U(1)_{L_mu-L_tau}$.
Neutron stars contain a significant number of stable muons due to the large
chemical potential and degenerate electrons. This makes them the unique vessel
to capture muonphilic dark matter, which does not interact with other
astrophysical objects, including Earth and its direct-detection experiments.
The infalling dark matter can heat up the neutron star both kinetically and via
annihilations, which is potentially observable with future infrared telescopes.
New physics models for muonphilic dark matter can easily be motivated by, and
connected to, existing anomalies in the muon sector, e.g. the anomalous
magnetic moment or LHCb’s recent hints for lepton-flavor non-universality in
$Bto Kmu^+mu^-$ decays. We study the implications for a model with dark
matter charged under a local $U(1)_{L_mu-L_tau}$.
http://arxiv.org/icons/sfx.gif
