Dark matter and bubble nucleation in old neutron stars

Abstract

We study the probability for nucleation of quark matter droplets in the dense cold cores of old neutron stars induced by the presence of a self-annihilating dark matter component, $\\chi$. Using a parameterized form of the equation of state for hadronic and quark phases of ordinary matter, we explore the thermodynamical conditions under which droplet formation is facilitated by energy injection from $\\chi$ self-annihilations. We obtain the droplet nucleation time as a function of the dark matter candidate mass, $m_\\chi$. We discuss further observational consequences.