The Exotic Black Hole–Neutron Star Binaries in Our Galaxy

Abstract It has been suggested that there are ∼10 5 black hole–neutron star (BH–NS) binaries in our Galaxy. However, despite the effort of intensive radio search for decades, none of these binaries has been found to date. These binaries are regarded as a holy grail of astronomy because they can greatly improve our understanding about relativistic systems of compact objects and fundamental physics. In this article, we propose the existence of exotic BH–NS binaries that can open a new way in searching the missing BH–NS binaries in our Galaxy. By considering the possible dark matter density spikes formed around the primordial black holes in the BH–NS binaries, we show that extremely high temperature (∼10 6 K) could be maintained on the surface of the neutron stars due to effective dark matter capture. This interesting feature can also help reveal the nature of dark matter and possibly further improve the upper limit of dark matter scattering cross section well below 10 −47 cm 2 .