Implications of feebly interacting dark sector on neutron star properties and constraints from GW170817

Abstract

We investigate the effect of feeble interaction of dark matter (DM) with hadronic matter on the equation of state (EoS) and structural properties of neutron stars (NSs) in static conditions. For the purpose, we adopt the effective chiral model for the hadronic sector and for the first time in the context of possible existence of DM inside NSs, we introduce the DM–SM interaction through light new physics mediator. Moreover, the mass of DM fermion, the mediator and the coupling are adopted from the self-interaction constraint from Bullet cluster and from present day relic abundance. Within the considered framework, the work highlights the underlying stiffening of EoS in the presence of DM fermion of mass of the order of a few GeV compared to the no-DM scenario. Consequently, the maximum gravitational mass of NS is obtained consistent with the bounds from the most massive pulsars that were not satisfied with the hadronic matter EoS alone. The estimates of radius and tidal deformability of 1.4-M⊙ NS and the tidal deformabilities of the individual components of the binary neutron stars (BNS) associated with GW170817 are all in good agreement with the individual constraints obtained from GW170817 observation of BNS merger.