Dark matter energy exchange in stars orbiting supermassive black holes
Stars on tight orbits around the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center pass through regions where the dark matter~(DM) density may be strongly enhanced. We compute the orbit-averaged DM-induced energy exchange for S4714 as an example. It is a star on an exceptionally close and relativistic orbit around Sagittarius~A*. For a spiked dark matter profile, the exchange reaches the stellar luminosity at $σ_{χp} \sim 10^{-36}~\mathrm{cm}^2$ for MeV-GeV masses and $σ_{χe} \sim 5\times10^{-38}~\mathrm{cm}^2$ for sub-MeV masses, opening a new annihilation-free route toward dark-star phases. These cross sections lie within the range predicted by freeze-in scenarios and are consistent with cosmic-ray--boosted and solar-reflection dark matter constraints.
Authors
- Sandra Robles (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6046-8217)
- Nicole F. Bell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5805-9828)
- Ian M. Shoemaker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5434-3744)
- Jayden L. Newstead (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8704-3550)
- R. Gustafson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4794-7459)
- Stephan A. Meighen-Berger
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Published
- 2026-10-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/2ghs-4mk6
- Primary Topic
- Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Ohio State University
- King's College London
- Office of Science
- Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Ohio State University
- Fermilab