The presence of exotic matter in neutron stars (NSs), in particular, quark matter (QM) and dark matter (DM), has been speculated for decades. This is attributed to the extreme physical conditions sustained by NSs. High densities reached by the cold nuclear matter at the core of NSs, irreproducible by the terrestrial experiments, can lead to a hadron-to-quark deconfinement phase transition. We employ the widely accepted MIT Bag model, including strong interactions to the first order to model the phase transition. We use state-of-the-art inputs from multi-disciplinary physics to impose new constraints on this phenomenological QM model. We use these to comment on the phase of matter in NS cores. Further, the strong gravity of NSs can lead to the trapping of a limited amount of DM particles. We show that the experimentally observed neutron decay anomaly can lead to high DM fractions in NSs and can affect the instability window of NS r-mode oscillations. We use astrophysical observations to constrain the DM self-interaction and add a bound on the DM fraction in NSs. Additionally, in the end, I will present one of our recent works concerning the distinguishability of the long-hypothesized strange stars (SSs) with the next-generation detectors using gravitational waves (GW) from the inspiral phase of binary mergers.
Zoom link: https://icts-res-in.zoom.us/j/92138831008?pwd=MnBXNUl5RjFKM09qWGM5MFk1djVUUT09
Meeting ID: 921 3883 1008
Passcode: 112211