Speaker
Description
Dark matter makes up the majority of matter in the Universe and plays a central role in the formation of cosmic structures. Under appropriate conditions, it may also form compact, self-gravitating objects analogous to stars. In this talk, I will examine the possibility that such “dark stars” arise in scenarios where dark matter possesses self-interactions in addition to gravity. These interactions are crucial, as they enable dark matter to dissipate energy and condense on astrophysically relevant timescales, while purely collisionless dark matter would collapse too slowly to form bound objects. I will present estimates for the internal structure of these systems and discuss the conditions under which their formation within dark matter halos becomes viable.