Star wreck

Abstract

Electroweak models with low-energy supersymmetry breaking predict the existence of stable non-topological solitons, Q-balls, that can be produced in the early universe. The relic Q-balls can accumulate inside a neutron star and gradually absorb the baryons into the scalar condensate. This causes a slow reduction in the mass of the star. When the mass reaches a critical value, the neutron star becomes unstable and explodes. The cataclysmic destruction of the distant neutron stars may be the origin of the gamma-ray bursts.

Supersymmetric dark-matter Q-balls and their interactions in matter

“…The rate of this second process was estimated to be suppressed by a factor (E/Λ) 3 , where Λ ∼ 1 TeV is the scale of SUSY breaking and E ∼ 1 GeV is the typical quark energy. This estimate was essential for the discussion of Q-balls interactions in a neutron star [19]. On the basis of this estimate it was concluded in Ref.…”

“…On the basis of this estimate it was concluded in Ref. [19] that a neutron star can survive for at least 1 Gyr after capturing a dark-matter Q-ball. We will see that the picture of interaction of baryons with Q-balls discussed above is incorrect.…”

Equation of state of dense matter and maximum mass of neutron stars

“…The Q-balls were proposed as a hypothetical component of cosmological dark matter (Kusenko et al 1998, Kusenko 2000. It was also proposed that Q-balls of a macroscopic size could have energy per unit baryon number lower than 56 Fe.…”

Cosmology of SUSY Q-balls

“…It would take a detector with the area of several square kilometers to cover the entire interesting range B ∼ 10 22 ...10 30 . The relic Q-balls can accumulate in neutron stars and can lead to their ultimate destruction over a time period from one billion years to longer than the age of the Universe 17 . If the lifetime of a neutron star is in a few Gyr range, the predicted mini-supernova explosions may be observable.…”