Dark dwarfs: dark matter-powered sub-stellar objects awaiting discovery at the galactic center

Croon, Djuna, Sakstein, Jeremy, Smirnov, Juri ORCID: 0000-0002-3082-0929 and Streeter, Jack (2025) Dark dwarfs: dark matter-powered sub-stellar objects awaiting discovery at the galactic center JOURNAL OF COSMOLOGY AND ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS, 2025 (7). 019-019. ISSN 1475-7516, 1475-7516

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Abstract

We investigate the effects of dark matter annihilation on objects with masses close to the sub-stellar limit, finding that the minimum mass for stable hydrogen burning is larger than the ∼ 0.075M<inf>⊙</inf> value predicted in the Standard Model. Below this limit, cooling brown dwarfs evolve into stable dark matter-powered objects that we name dark dwarfs. The timescale of this transition depends on the ambient dark matter density ρ <inf>DM</inf> and circular velocity v <inf>DM</inf> but is independent of the dark matter mass. We predict a population of dark dwarfs close to the galactic center, where the dark matter density is expected to be ρ <inf>DM</inf> ≳ 10³ GeV/cm³. At larger galactic radii the dark matter density is too low for these objects to have yet formed within the age of the universe. Dark dwarfs retain their initial lithium-7 in mass ranges where brown/red dwarfs would destroy it, providing a method for detecting them.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	dark matter theory, dark matter experiments
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	10 Sep 2026 11:33
Last Modified:	10 Sep 2026 12:46
DOI:	10.1088/1475-7516/2025/07/019
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3203496
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