New research explores the capture of dark matter in neutron stars

By Professor Nicole Bell, University of Melbourne

The quest to uncover the nature of dark matter is one of the greatest challenges in science today, but the key to finally understanding this mysterious substance may well lie in the stars.

Or to be precise, one particular type of star – the neutron star.

So far, scientists have been able to infer the existence of dark matter, but not directly observe it. Actually detecting dark matter particles in experiments on Earth is a formidable task, because the interactions of dark matter particles with regular matter are exceedingly rare.

To search for these incredibly rare signals, we need a very large detector – perhaps so big that it is impracticable to build a detector large enough on Earth. However, Nature provides an alternative option in the form of neutron stars – an entire neutron star can act as the ultimate dark matter detector.

In research published in Physical Review Letters, we have determined how to much more accurately use information gained from these unique natural dark matter detectors. In an article in Pursuit, we write about our research into neutron stars and their role as natural dark matter detectors.

You can read the article here.