Some neutron stars might be hiding a secret core of dark matter, which would explain why they’re so impossibly huge.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Analyzing Fermionic Dark Matter scenarios with anomalous compact objects
arXiv · 2603.22490
The Takeaway
Scientists found that 'anomalous' compact objects in space that don't fit current physics models can be perfectly explained if they contain a small amount of dark matter. This means dark matter isn't just a ghost-like substance in the void, but can actively cluster inside stars and change how they behave.
From the abstract
In this paper, we consider three compact objects (HESS J1731-347, PSR J1231-1411, XTE J1814-338) with anomalous mass-radius relation to analyze the possibility of being dark matter admixed neutron stars. We try to infer the dark matter particle properties, under the assumption of behaving as a free Fermi gas. The main novelty relies on the use of a baryonic equation of state obtained from first principles in the whole density range, that allows to eliminate the model dependence of the baryonic p