Speaker
Description
In this talk, I will discuss the effects of self-interacting bosonic dark matter on neutron stars in light of recent observations from NICER and LIGO/Virgo. In this framework, sub-GeV bosonic dark matter can be present either as a dense core inside the star or as an extended halo around it, modifying key observable properties such as the mass, radius, and tidal deformability. By varying the dark-matter particle mass, self-coupling strength, and dark-matter fraction, we determine the regions of parameter space consistent with current astrophysical constraints.
Furthermore, I will present a novel aspect of this study: the impact of dark-matter halos on the X-ray pulse profiles of rotating neutron stars. Because dark matter changes the external spacetime geometry, it influences photon propagation and gravitational light bending, which can leave measurable imprints on the observed light curve. I will show that the minimum flux of the pulse profile can be significantly affected by the presence of a dark-matter halo, opening a new possibility for probing dark matter in neutron stars through pulse-profile modeling.