Constraining Dark Boson Decay Using Neutron Stars

Abstract

Inspired by the well-known anomaly in the lifetime of the neutron, we investigated its consequences inside neutron stars. We first assessed the viability of the neutron decay hypothesis suggested by Fornal and Grinstein within neutron stars, in terms of the equation of state and compatibility with observed properties. This was followed by an investigation of the constraint information on neutron star cooling that can be placed on the decay rate of the dark boson into standard model particles, in the context of various BSM ideas.