Neutron star as laboratories for Cosmology

Abstract

Neutron stars can be considered a useful and interesting laboratory for Cosmology. With their deep gravitational potential they may accrete dark matter from the galactic halo and subsequent self-annihilation processes could induce an indirect observable signal this type of matter. In addition, the large densities in the interior of these objects may constitute a test-bench to study hypothesized deviations of fundamental constant values complementary to existing works using constraints at low density from BBN.

5 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 47th Rencontres de Moriond on Cosmology, March 10-17, 2012, La Thuile, Italy