Dark matter annihilation and pair-instability supernovae

Abstract

The authors study the effect of annihilating dark matter on massive stars suffering from pair-instability. The annihilation of dark matter inserts energy into the star and the authors show that for sufficient dark matter density, significant changes occur in the masses of the resulting black holes. For dark matter masses greater than 1 GeV, most of the dark matter is in the core which leads to a more violent explosion, resulting in a lighter black hole, while for masses less than .5 GeV, most of the dark matter is in the envelope, supporting the star through energy release, causing a less violent explosion and a more massive black hole.

Topics & Concepts