Higgs portals to pulsar collapse

Abstract

Pulsars apparently missing from the Galactic center could have been destroyed by asymmetric fermionic dark matter (${m}_{X}=1--100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$) coupled to a light scalar (${m}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}=5--20\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}$), which mixes with the Higgs boson. We point out that this pulsar-collapsing dark sector can resolve the core-cusp problem and will either be excluded or discovered by upcoming direct detection experiments. Another implication is a maximum pulsar age curve that increases with distance from the Galactic center, with a normalization that depends on the couplings and masses of dark sector particles. In addition, we use old pulsars outside the Galactic center to place bounds on asymmetric Higgs portal models.